Huawei has called on players across the solar industry to come together to develop high-quality solar PV benchmarks.
The call, which was issued by Xia Hesheng, president of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa’s digital power business at Solar Show Africa 2023, comes at a pivotal time for the industry.
With Africa home to 60% of the world’s best solar resources, solar PV has the potential to be a game-changer in providing affordable, clean energy to households, enterprises, and the wider electric grid. As Hesheng pointed out in his keynote speech at the conference, carbon neutrality, energy independence and business value are the three wheels driving the rapid growth in PV demand.
But, he pointed out, with no industry-standard benchmarks in place, customers will get products of varying quality and efficacy. For its part, Huawei believes that there are three key areas that any benchmarks should focus on: quality, safety, and power grid adaptation.
“The whole industry should be paying serious attention to quality, especially at this early stage of its development in Africa,” he said. “Only by ensuring that those working at all levels of the industry have the same commitment to quality and developing standard benchmarks for them to work towards will the sector achieve its true potential.”
The same, Hesheng added, is true for safety. Huawei uses a number of technologies to ensure that its solar PV products are as safe as possible. These include a Smart string level Disconnector, Smart Connector Temperature Detector, AFCI (arc-fault circuit interrupter), RSD(Rapid Shut Down). It additionally uses four-level safety protection: Prewarning, Detection, Isolation, and Fire suppression. All of these technologies are in line with the latest international safety standards.
Further, Huawei uses string inverters in its utility solutions, which reduces the safety risks associated with the long cables used in centralised inverter models. Huawei’s residential solution, meanwhile, is the only one to feature a built-in fire extinguishing kit to ensure the safety of the energy storage system.
Another important consideration, Hesheng pointed out, is grid adaptability.
“As the proportion of new energy increases, it’s vital that industry players take the adaptability and friendliness of the power grid into consideration,” he said. “Failing to do so could result in a weakening of the grid, which is counter to what the industry should be working towards.”
Huawei, he said, works hard to ensure that its solutions can better adapt to, support, and enhance the power grid.
“Today, I’m calling on everyone in the industry to display the same commitment to quality, safety, and grid adaption,” he concluded. “Moreover, we should come together to develop standards and specifications to ensure that every solar installation in Africa is high quality, safe, and grid friendly.”