Abstract
Solar water heaters represent the success story in the development of renewable energy in Taiwan. With increasing public awareness, there are over 0.3 million residential systems in operation. To disseminate solar water heaters in remote islands, economic feasibility and water quality are taken into account in this study. The payback period in Kinmen and Penghu Counties are evaluated, according to effective annual solar energy gain, hot water consumption pattern and cost. Assessment of the scaling and corrosion tendencies for solar water heaters using tap and underground water are also presented. For flat-plate solar collectors with metal components, favorable corrosion resistance and protective anti-corrosion coatings are required.
Highlights
Taiwan is densely populated (23,315,822 persons and 644.21 persons/km2 in 2012) and has limited natural resources
Higher cost of solar water heaters (SWHs) compared with conventional hot water heaters is one of the factors limiting installation of these systems
In the payback period analysis, the daily load volume plays an important role in proper sizing of a SWH
Summary
Taiwan is densely populated (23,315,822 persons and 644.21 persons/km in 2012) and has limited natural resources. The ratio of indigenous energy to total primary energy supply is approximately. It is known to be the most widely used in many countries [3,4,5,6,7]. In Taiwan, the climatic conditions are predominantly very sunny, with daily average solar radiation of 3.25 kWh/m2 in the north and 4.64 kWh/m2 in the south. Kinmen County (118°24' E, 24°27' N) is made up of 12 jurisdictional islands, with a total land area of 151.66 km, and lies in the subtropical oceanic climate zone. The highest and lowest monthly average temperatures are 28.2 °C in August and 12.8 °C in January, respectively. Its average temperature of the year is 23 °C; the lowest is 16.2 °C in February and the highest is 28.3 °C in July
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