[RE-wrenches] Solar NGO's in Haiti??

[penobscotsolar at midmaine.com]

Hi Bill,
   I worked in Haiti this last year for a couple of months with an NGO and
installed a donated system. Customs took almost ten months to allow the
solar panels to pass through. They sat in customs through two different
trips down. There is much corruption and many scams. There is a company
now manufacturing panels in Port Au Prince. I do not remember their
name and Googling does not bring anything up.
   The only batteries available (at least last year) that were sourced
within the country were Trojan T-105's , very, very common and easy to
purchase in PAP.
   Why not use the charger built into the inverter to charge the
batteries, even when used as a UPS system? There really isn't a need
for an extraneous charger beyond that. You can source both Xantrex and
OutBack inverters from dealers in PAP and Leogane, where I was working.

Feel free to contact me off list if I can help,

Daryl DeJoy
NABCEP Certified PV installer
Penobscot Solar Design
207 326-0779




> A doctor in town has started an orphanage in Haiti and while it has
> connection with government power for a few hours per day, it of course is
> not reliable and is very expensive. We are still in the stage where we are
> trying to figure how to shed as much load as possible. I have no
> territoriality in this project and will help provide system design and
> hardware at my cost, however apparently tariffs can be huge so we may want
> to source as much as possible in country.  Can anyone tell me which solar
> NGO's (SELF?) you'd recommend to tell us what hardware (deep cycle
> batteries) is available in country? And if it is a simple UPS system,
> storing from the grid, what grid-connected battery chargers does everyone
> recommend for a fairly large battery bank? Used to be Todd chargers and I
> wondered if they've corrected problems or passed on to some other company.
>
>
>
> Thanks for your suggestions.
>
>
>
> Bill Dorsett
>
> Sunwrights
>
> 1715 Leavenworth
>
> Manhattan, KS
>
> 785/539-1956 Home/Office
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Bill Dorsett
>
> Sunwrights
>
> 1715 Leavenworth
>
> Manhattan, KS
>
> 785/539-1956 Home/Office
>
>
>
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