Kathy Gibson reports – The global energy transition ushers in a turning point for the world as wind and solar generation grows by 19% against coal generation’s 1,1% growth.
This transition is being driven by the global consensus of becoming carbon-neutral, the desire for countries to achieve energy sovereignty, and the business value that can be unlocked, says Leo Chen, president of Huawei sub-Saharan Africa.
He was speaking at the Huawei FusionSolar 2023 event alongside the Solar and Future Energy Show, where South African power shortages and rising electricity prices are driving a need for more reliable, successful, and affordable power supply.
“Huawei can be part of the solution,” he says. “We have developed the most comprehensive set of ICT technology and this gives us an advantage. By integrating electronic and digital technologies we can enable the traditional solar energy industry to be more efficient and more intelligent.”
Leo Chen says that the quest for global carbon neutrality, energy security, and commercial value are driving the rapid development of a new international energy industry. The urgency of Africa’s own transition is being accelerated by power shortages and rising energy prices.
He indicates that, in facing these challenges, Huawei aims to be part of the solution. “With a heavy investment in R&D, we’ve developed the most comprehensive set of technologies in ICT, and this forms our unique advantage.”
By integrating power electronic and digital technologies, Huawei’s ‘4T’ (WatT, HeaT, BatTery, and BiT) technologies, which refers to Huawei’s innovations in the field of power electronics, thermal management, power storage, and Cloud and AI, can enable the traditional solar energy industry to be more efficient and more intelligent.
“The application of our “4T” technologies, will also effectively accelerate Africa’s energy transition toward the direction of ‘4D’, which is Decarbonisation, Digitalisation, Decentralisation, and Democratisation,” he says.
Huawei’s full-scenario smart PV solutions not only can provide solutions to utility-scale large plants, but also to energy storage facilities, commercial and industrial (C&I) rooftops, residential rooftops, data centres, and smart microgrids in rural areas.
By doing this, more flexible energy generation solutions that are close to the point of use can be applied and the transmission and distribution setup can be minimised, thus saving costs and losses. Through this approach, power consumers can be transformed into power producers, which helps to achieve better power resilience for users and the whole society.
The Huawei DigiPower Cloud provides professional platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) for the energy industry, connecting energy generation with storage.
Africa’s energy transition calls for decarbonisation, digitalisation, decentralization, and democratisation.
More flexible energy solutions closer to the point of use will minimise distribution and set up costs.
Huawei’s Smart PV solutions can help, Chen says, offering solutions for users ranging from utilities to households.
“This means more consumers can be transformed into energy producers.”
Chen adds that Huawei has already achieved some notable successes, helping customers offset 340-million tons of carbon emissions. “And we are committed to working with industry partners to continue this positive impact.”
The energy crisis is a challenge, but this opens up new opportunities, says Guoguang Chen, president of the smart PV business at Huawei Digital Power.
“We can utilise the opportunities that solar brings to achieve a green future for Africa.”
In 2021, Huawei grew its global inverter shipments by 100% – and 87% in Africa. Its global energy storage systems (ESS) growth was 350%, with 70% growth in Africa.
So far, Huawei systems are responsible for 695-billion kWh of green power around the world.
“It is clear we want to bring green power to every person, home, and organisation,” Chen says.
He outlines several trends that we can expect to see in 2023 and going forward.
This year, the smart string inverter has become mainstream, accounting for 80% market share in 2022.
This new technology has helped to sort out the main PV panel issues, Chen says.
Smart string inverters can help avoid power generation loss, reduce manual operations and maintenance, and address insufficient management and protection thus reducing safety risks in the system.
ESSs are also moving form centralised to smart strong configurations. The traditional battery configuration offers relatively small available capacity with a high safety risk. New ESS solutions, on the other hand, offer a comprehensive system that combines electrochemistry, heat dissipation, power electronics, and digital technologies to enable multi-stage charge and discharge optimisation, precise temperature control, and better safety features.
On a more granular level, its is important that batteries themselves operate effectively, so ESS management needs to extend management to battery rack, pack, and cell level.
Another important trend is in distributed PV systems, which are safer and smarter, Chen points out.
Safety is vital, he adds, and some countries have already released regulations around PV panel safety features.
“This is why we see electronics play a big role in the future,” Chen says. With the deployment of MLPE in rooftop solar, households will achieve higher values, active safety, flexible design, and smart operations and management.
Upgraded safety of the whole system is becoming a vital requirement. To achieve this, Huawei integrates power electronics, thermal management, and digital technologies to upgrade the safety level of PV panels and energy storage systems.
“We can fully utilise our technology to enable system-level security and safety,” Chen adds.
Steve Zheng, president of utility smart PC business at Huawei Digital Power, launched the Huawei FusionSolar Utility Smart PV&ESS solution.