Flooded Lead Acid Battery

Flooded Lead-Acid
When you switch to solar energy, particularly to solar photovoltaic systems, you will be dealing with different types of solar batteries. The battery is one of the main components of a solar PV system that you should take a deeper understanding of. However, understanding and differentiating these solar batteries might be confusing to some, especially for those who are only new to the solar energy community.  

For today’s article, we will explain how important it is to understand the basics of solar batteries and highlighting one of the common solar battery types, which is the flooded lead-acid battery.
What is Flooded Lead-Acid Battery?
A flooded lead-acid battery is the most common type of deep cycle solar battery in the market compared to a sealed lead-acid battery and other lead-acid batteries. These lead-acid batteries are sometimes called “wet cell” lead-acid batteries and have been on the market for many decades. They are also the least expensive solar storage battery upfront next to Lithium-ion solar batteries, which are the most cost-effective ones. 

Flooded lead-acid batteries and sealed lead-acid batteries are always being compared with one another due to their almost same performance, depth of discharge abilities, warranty, and cycle life. The largest difference between the two lead-acid battery types is their battery maintenance. 
How Do Flooded Lead-Acid Batteries Differ From Other Lead-acid Batteries?
For a flooded lead-acid battery, you need to add water so often for their maintenance, you also have to perform periodic equalization needs. The specific gravity of the electrolyte also needs to be measured frequently with a hydrometer. 

Another factor that makes a flooded battery differ from other batteries is that it can off-gas hydrogen in particular battery charging conditions. Since it can off-gas hydrogen, you need to vent the battery needing to release all the accumulated fumes. On the other hand, a sealed lead-acid battery does not require any high maintenance nor not require battery venting, making its spot next to a flooded lead-acid battery and popular to solar users who don’t want to deal with battery high maintenance. However, a sealed lead-acid battery due to the inability to maintain the battery, may not perform at its maximum levels, making the flooded lead-acid battery remain the most ideal solar battery.
Flooded Lead-Acid Battery Maintenance
While the flooded lead-acid battery is the most common and economic solar battery on the market, it will only reach its expected lifespan if you know how to maintain them properly. These lead-acid batteries usually contain an electrolyte that can freely move inside the battery encasement. When it is being charged, its battery acid and lead plates usually react to store electricity. Thus, they are meant to be placed upright so that the electrolyte will not leak out of the caps on top. Also, you must check the levels monthly and topped them off with distilled water to reach their longest possible lifespan.
Is it Worth it to Buy for a Solar PV System?
Aside from its durability, performance, and depth of discharge abilities, using flooded lead-acid deep cycle batteries for your solar energy storage will save you from hefty costs. Among the other lead-acid battery, they are the most cost-effective battery with the lowest cost per amp-hour and cost per kWh cycle. With all of the mentioned advantages of a flooded lead-acid battery, it is surely worth buying for your solar PV system.

Manufacturers

In the simplest terms, manufacturing is the process of producing actual goods or items/products through the use of raw materials, human labour, use of machinery, tools and other processes such as chemical formulation. This process usually starts with product designing and raw material selection, turning them into an actual product output. 

Solar Products Manufacturers and Factories

In terms of solar, manufacturing encompasses the fabrication or production of materials across the solar market chain. The most common product being manufactured by solar companies are the solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, which are made with several subcomponents such as solar wafers, cells, glass, back sheets, and frames. Before a solar panel comes into life, it will undergo a lot of processes, from designing, modelling, choosing what raw materials to use and then assembling them all to make the final product.

More Than Just Solar Panels

Aside from the solar panels, solar companies have many other manufactured products that are required to make solar energy systems work smoothly, like solar inverters, batteries, combiner boxes, and racking and tracking structures.

Having a solar manufacturing sector makes a big difference in supplying affordable solar energy in different areas. Aside from maintaining the rising domestic and global demand for cleaner and renewable energy, they also help the economy grow, particularly the solar industry. If you are in search of a reliable solar manufacturing company, checking out our solar outsourcing company, SolarFeeds, would help you get easy access to reliable information, news, data and a list of solar manufacturers that can help you with solar products.

Honduras

Solar Market Outlook in Honduras

Honduras is emerging as the first major success story in Central America’s solar energy market. In fact, it earns the distinction as the first one in the region to attain 10% solar production in its energy industry.

In 2016, the state power energy company ENEE cited that 10.2% of the nation’s electrical system was generated from solar sources, specifically through PV power plants. This is a major breakthrough since Honduras becomes the first non-island nation to exceed the 10% mark in terms of solar energy production.

Honduras also leads other Central American nations in terms of the amount of installed PV capacity and is only second to Chile in all of Latin America. This energy revolution is spurring more development in Honduras and there are many investors hoping to take advantage of the photovoltaic boom in the country. With that said, the private sector has a lot to contribute to the growth of the solar energy market, especially after one plastic recycling company decided to install its solar panels to generate its own electricity. 

The forecast is good for the country as solar energy experts believe that the current growth rate is only going to attract more solar investors and manufacturers to the country. Even though the private sector is getting a lot of recognition for this growth, these results are also part of the decades-long effort by the government to push the utilization of renewable energy sources. 

Solar Energy Equipment Supply Capacity in Honduras

As one of the leaders in Central America’s drive to promote solar energy, there are a variety of options when it comes to solar energy equipment suppliers in Honduras. 

Even then, there are plenty of options for those who wish to import solar energy equipment, components, and other parts for PV and other solar installations.

Top 6 Major Seaports & Logistics in Honduras

The logistics and goods handling capability of Honduras is quite impressive. It has plenty of domestic and international seaports that facilitate transport of essential goods and solar equipment for those who are interested.

These top seaports are as follows:

• Port of Puerto Cortes,
• Port of Tela,
• Port of Puerto Castilla,
• Port of La Ceiba,
• Port of San Lorenzo
• Port of Puerto Coxen Hole.