Island Systems [RE-wrenches]

[David Brearley]

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Greetings wrenches.

A local engineer is interested in designing and marketing PV systems into the Dominican Republic.  Based on the application as it was described to me, he is looking to sell stand alone systems in place of existing generators, which are loud and expensive to run.  I had several questions, which went unanswered in our conversation.  Perhaps someone out in the ether can help.

First, does anyone on the list know whether there is an existing knowledge base on the island to install, program, and maintain a sophisticated hybrid system?  (If not, I will volunteer some solar hippies from Vermont for the winter.)  Second, 
I am curious if anyone has first hand experience with the grid reliability in the Dominican Republic.  While the grid is generally unreliable, it is available for a couple hours or many hours out of the day.  What adjustments have you made to your basic system sizing that best accommodates the varying times that the utility grid is available for running loads and charging batteries?  Third, since hurricanes will always be a factor, a well designed system will still require generator back up.  That could make marketing a system difficult.  PV is a silent generator, but is that enough incentive to sell a $20,000 to $50,000 system.  Any experience marketing PV on the islands?  

By all means contact me off-list, if you'd rather.  But I suspect that this will interest the group.  Somebody out there is serving this market, however seasonal or challenging it is.  (I mean designing systems is one thing, international shipping, duties and customs, quite another.)  Is this a profitable side for any of your businesses?  Is it an end in itself?  Or is it, as I suspect, difficult to sell and difficult to maintain these systems, but hellava fun to install in January?  

Thanks all.  

David C. Brearley
Eastern Region Tech Services Manager

Energy Outfitters
218 Little Falls Rd, Units 7 & 8
Cedar Grove, NJ 07009
Phone: 973/239-1815
Fax: 973/239-8794
www.energyoutfitters.com 

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