Solar PV Research

Try to contact this guy:

Richard D. Hansen, PE, MBA, President and CEO of Soluz, Inc.

He was doing PV in the DR over 20 years ago.

Soluz is still around. His focus has been on stand alone systems off the grid.

There have been some fairly large systems for community water pumping.

When I met him, he was doing panels for rural stores where there was no electic at all. The store could have lights to sell goods and run a sound system. Before that, everything closed up as soon as it got dark. The production area was on the north coast near Sosua in a area called Bella Vista.

Just curious

What type of research are you conducting in the DR?
Is it regarding commercial viability of solar in the DR?

thanks.

I don't know if it still exists, but in rural areas some years ago people would run their entire electric off off a single car battery. Then they would bring it in to a gas station to recharge it every few weeks.

Personally I think very low wattage systems using a hand crank are a lot more cost effective than solar. For under $15, you can get a LED light and radio with a hand crank. Cranking it for about two minutes powers it for about an hour.

PeterInBrat said:

I don't know if it still exists, but in rural areas some years ago people would run their entire electric off off a single car battery. Then they would bring it in to a gas station to recharge it every few weeks.

Personally I think very low wattage systems using a hand crank are a lot more cost effective than solar. For under $15, you can get a LED light and radio with a hand crank. Cranking it for about two minutes powers it for about an hour.

Click to expand...

I used to manage Soluz Dominicana and it has been downsized but still offers PV services. The advantage to using a solar panel or two to charge the car battery instead of taking it in to be charged off the grid, is convience and the life of the battery is often doubled.

A 50 watt panel generally produces between 200-300 watt/hours a day depending on the season and angle the module is placed at. How many minutes of cranking would it take to produce that?

It would take forever, and you certainly wouldn't want to charge a battery with it. I'm not bashing solar at all, just that for a very small cost even a poor campasino can have some LED lights or run a radio. Richard was very big on providing reading lights for rural school kids, because they were using basic kerosene lamps which didn't put out much light and the kerosene was expensive. He was also introducing compact flourescents which put out a good amount of light from a car battery.

But now with three LED lights you can read a book with a few minutes work per hour. I wouldn't suggest hand cranking to power a colmado or recharge a car battery, but for rural folk who want a nightlight or radio, it's a good option.

If I wanted to charge a battery manually, I'd rig something up with an old foot style treadle sewing machine base--something someone could use while just sitting around a store all day. Having run a small store for 14 hours a day I can tell you, it wouldn't be a bother to have something to do other that sit and wait for customers. There are many ways out there to get some basic electric and they all have their place depending on the situation and ability for the clients to pay for it.

Some guy in PaP was using a solar charger for cell phones after the earthquake That seemed like a very nice little business.

Anything that works off the grid is great as far as I'm concerned.

Sorry if I came off the wrong way. I could imagine a rural gym set up as a battery charging station where you can drop it off for a few hours and those on the stationary bikes with top that thing and get back for the novelas.

More serious, Richard started in 84 introducing PV technology to rural families near Bella Vista, Sosua. He was able to get some small revolving funds together for some limited credit. He worked closely with Peace Corps and trained 4 volunteers and their counterparts a year. In 88, another volunteer and I went to the training and helped our counterparts start small PV businesses. He was supporting other Domincans around the country who were trying install and service systems. An Austrian, professor at UCAMIMA (SP???) named Helmut was also very involved and had his business in Jarabacoa.

I returned in the late 90's when the business part of the solar work was expanding and implementing a rental option. I allowed a much high percentage of population off the grid to afford PV. The devaluation of currency was not friendly to what we were doing, including the continuing extension of the grid, especially right before elections.

We did a fairly large project near Santiago Rodriguez funded by the European Union. Our Spanish and French competitors also worked on the project.

The not-for-profit arm of Richard's work (Enersol) worked on training techinicans around the cournty and installing systems in community centers, schools and rural clinics when donations or funding was avalible. US AID funded a number of community water pumping systems which were done in the mid to late ninties.

When I was with Soluz ending in 99, I estimated over 10,000 home systems had been installed in the country. Without proper maintainance and repair, many of these systems are not used to their potential within 2 years after installation.

Working with the Peace Corps, Enersol, Industrial Electrica Bella Vista and Soluz were the best times of my life minus when I was attacked and almost killed in 98 while I lay sleeping in my bed in Bella Vista. I have the utmost respect for Richard and even today he is still doing the same thing, but on a global level pushing the business model.

3rd paragraph, it should say It not I. I can only take a small part of the credit. I tried cleaning it up but you only get 10 minutes after posting.

I have been researching solar for my house in the DR, but haven't made the "switch" I am thinking a basic DR house would be 4000 to 5000 systems costing $13000 to $17000. Seems high up front, but when you consider no electrical bills and reliable power it makes sense to me.

Has anyone had an experience here with a full solar house?

A basic DR house in the campo is different. A 50 watt system installed was around US$500. That ran a small radio, 4-5 lights, and small black and white TV. It is also necessary to regulate the use the system, mostly the TV. We were/are replacing candles, kerosene and transporting the battery (one).

The basic home you are talking about would require a 1000 watts and cost around $20,000.

So far, applications make sense when you are off grid and are willing to conserve energy.

Solar water heating is definitely cost effective even if you are on the grid. You still need a backup/booster heater on some days but as a pre-heater it saves a lot of energy. Even a black 55 gallon drum on your roof can make a difference in your heating costs.