Taiwan has been providing financial, agricultural and technological aid to its African diplomatic ally Burkina Faso since the countries resumed ties in 1994. But for the first time, Taiwan is able to use its high tech prowess to light up the dark nights for the French-speaking under-developed “land of honest men.”
In Burkina Faso, electricity is only available in big cities, but since last month, students in rural provinces have tested 120 Taiwan-made bulbless light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. These lamps, supplied by Taiwan’s Chuntex Electronic Co (CTX, 中強電子), are powered by rechargeable lithium-iron (Li-iron) batteries — an advanced kind of lithium-ion battery — and they cost only about US$10 each.
The rechargeable Li-iron batteries can be used for 20 years and supply 1 kilowatt of electricity to power the LED lamps for up to 4.5 hours after being plugged into a system that harnesses solar energy, which is installed near a local primary school, for about 20 minutes.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
With loans from the World Bank, Burkina Faso, where the sun shines for 12 hours a day, will receive 20 million solar-powered lamps within the next four years for its 1.5 million residences, which translates into virgin business opportunities in Africa for Taiwanese solar energy-related businesses.
“With the revolutionary Li-iron batteries, which are highly efficient in power storage, we can replace [existing] power grids in Africa and anywhere in the world,” CTX chairman Chen Ming-der (陳明德) said during an interview with the Taipei Times.
Behind the Burkina Faso solar lamp project are 59-year-old Chen and Tsao Hsing-chien (曹行健), director of the bureau of employment and vocational training under the Central Training Center in Taichung.
“During a recent trip to Burkina Faso, the daughter of one of the energy officials there told me that the lamp is exactly what students there need,” Tsao said. “The progress of any civilization always comes along with lighting.”
Tsao, who travels to Burkina Faso on a regular basis to facilitate its vocational training system, is actually the one who first came up with the idea.
He said that he was deeply troubled by power shortages there. Impoverished students study under street lamps or outside hotels when night falls because there is no electricity service outside the capital city Ouagadougou, where electricity rationing is also common. He sought help from his good friend Chen, who was formerly the CEO of the Central Taiwan Science Park’s (中科) business alliance committee.
Chen called upon Changs Ascending Enterprise Co (長園科技), where he is an advisor, and several other solar energy and LED manufacturers, including Everlight Electronic Co (億光電子) and Pontex Polyblend Co (邦泰複材), to brainstorm possibilities for lighting that could be powered by Burkina Faso’s inexhaustible solar energy. The outcome is satisfactory and “hassle-free” in every aspect including a short charging time, great capacity, 20 year life cycle and affordable cost.
Moreover, interest in the lamp has now spread from Africa to countries such as Indonesia and other Pacific island nations, Chen said, adding that “orders are placed non-stop.”
It all started with Chen’s firm belief in the Li-iron battery and its 100 percent capacity for power storage.
Although traditional lead-acid rechargeable batteries are six times cheaper than Li-iron batteries, they only have a 40 percent power storage capacity and fewer charge/discharge life cycles.
If costs can be brought down, Li-iron batteries can edge out lead-acid batteries with a wider range of applications, which will spell “trillions of US dollars in business opportunities” to the local battery industry, Chen said.
Changs Ascending’s batteries will soon team up with its distributor, CTX, and Canadian performance battery material provider Phostech Lithium Inc, to acquire the world’s only two patents for Li-iron production and found another joint venture in Central Taiwan Science Park with an initial working capital of NT$3 billion (US$91 million) to mass produce Li-iron battery cells, he said.
Changs Ascening said its products are especially suitable for high-current lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, e-scooters, electric bicycles, power tools, solar-cell systems and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems.
Chang Jung-hui (張榮輝), a project manager at the Photovoltaics Technology Center under the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院), also sees the potential of Li-iron batteries.
He said that Li-iron batteries, which are safer in terms of temperatures and more cost effective than other Li-ion batteries, could trigger a replacement wave if they become price competitive to lead-acid batteries.
Because of their high currents, Li-iron batteries are known for their storage capacity and ability to, for example, power e-scooters to up to 180kph — a feat no other batteries can achieve.
“Many expect them to be used to efficiently power electric cars,” Chang said, adding that manufacturers must deliver on their claims in a variety of applications to expand the number of end users.
But Chen is confident that Li-iron batteries will become the batteries of choice.
Before Chen’s arrival, the company went bankrupt in 1999 even though it once exported one of the third-largest monitor brands to the US and Europe.
Recommended by debtor banks, Chen came to the company’s rescue in early 2007 to lead restructuring, He cleared all of its NT$6.8 billion in debt in one year by selling off its hidden overseas assets and cutting staff worldwide from 3,000 to 100.
With a military background, Chen has learned to accept any kind of circumstances. His decisiveness and ability to manage risk were developed as he struggled to stay alive while fighting in the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
“My own past experience with CTX TVs, which lasted for decades and were once very popular, made me believe that CTX’s reorganization plan would succeed,” Chen said.
The Taipei court agreed and last August ruled that CTX had successfully completed its reorganization process, although one lawyer specializing in corporate reorganization said CTX’s success in restructuring is unconventional because its core business does not appear to have remained intact.
That has only marked the beginning for CTX, whose core, but unprofitable, monitor business for TVs and personal computers with a slim margin of just 2 percent still accounts for nearly half its revenues, while surveillance products with a more generous 30 percent margin accounts for another 25 percent.
Although he plans to gradually shed CTX’s monitor businesses, Chen has a vision for the company, whose strength is in its 128-country network. This network will be important for worldwide distribution as the company diversifies into other fields such as batteries and beauty products — under the brand “CTX Beauty.”
CTX partnered with Taichung-based Jing Wang Biotechnology Co (晶旺生技), in which Chen has personal investments, two years ago to launch its beauty product line, which features pearl peptide and ginseng extracts to organically fight aging and all sorts of skin problem.
Built mostly on word of mouth, sales of the equally profitable beauty line have grown, defying the recent economic downturn, to account for 20 percent of the company’s total revenues last year. Chen said that the company’s biotech muscle would next expand into health products such as garlic extracts made with low-temperature squeezing technology to help increase human immunity and prevent cancer.
“During any downturn, there are still people who make money. My strategy for CTX is to bring in as much money-making diversification as possible to facilitate its transformation from a traditional electronics maker,” he said.
But money-making is not Chen’s ultimate goal: the pursuit of uality is his business philosophy.
“I’d rather have a stockpile of quality products than hot sales of inferior output,” he said.
Taking his newly launched organic henna hair dye powder as an example, Chen joked that his wife has been his guinea pig to ensure the product works and has no side effects.
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