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To use the full power of the sun: Village power supply in Togo

21.04.2018
  • To use the full power of the sun: Village power supply in Togo - Saturday, 21.04.2018
  • To use the full power of the sun: Village power supply in Togo - Saturday, 21.04.2018
  • To use the full power of the sun: Village power supply in Togo - Saturday, 21.04.2018

Togo lies on the Gulf of Guinea only a few hundred kilometres from the equator and is a small state by African standards. The coastal region in the south of the country is comparatively well developed, while there is usually only a poor infrastructure in the other parts of the country. But there is one thing to be enough in Togo: sunshine. The average daily sunshine hours are between 4-5 (July to September) and 9-10 (October to March), depending on the season. HOPPECKE has many years of very extensive experience in the so-called off-grid power supply. This is the name given to systems for self-sufficient energy supply in regions that are not connected to an electricity grid or where the grid is very unstable and often functions only sporadically. Especially in Africa there are many off-grid systems that use large photovoltaic installations to absorb the abundant solar energy and make it available to residents by large energy storage systems.

Batteries in use that work reliably even at high temperatures

An important requirement for these off-grid storage systems is that they are extremely robust and reliable. Because the distances for service technicians in Africa are very long and arduous. This year, for instance, HOPPECKE implemented two village power projects in Togo. Two colleagues from Germany went to Togo to install the systems and supervised the work on site. The HOPPECKE sun | power V L 2-1520 batteries are installed and it is of great importance that these closed lead batteries operate reliably and safely even at high temperatures in Africa. In general, lithium batteries are more sensitive and must be continuously cooled at high temperatures. In addition, we use our sun|air Electrolyte Circulation System in the off-grid village power projects. By constant movement in the lead-acid battery, these are fully charged more efficiently and the corrosion rate is significantly reduced. The HOPPECKE competence area sun offers a wide variety of solutions for the storage of regeneratively generated energy optimised for the application. You can find out more about current projects and activities in our sun|Newsletter. If you are interested, please register now. Register here