Huawei Digital Power, the group’s renewable energy arm, will address the local market’s energy needs from an ecosystem perspective by building and installing holistic solutions covering generation, transmission, distribution, usage, and storage in a bid to plug the power gap.
Renewables like wind, solar, and hydro power are expected to continue replacing fossil fuels as key energy sources. In driving this transformation and building intelligent, low-carbon energy systems, the digital and energy sectors will merge on a fundamental level, creating an energy revolution. Solar is one of the primary sources of renewable energy in Africa, yet despite having more than 40% of the world’s solar energy resources, African countries only have 1 percent of the global installed solar capacity.
Speaking during the Huawei FusionSolar Channel Partner Summit 2022 in Johannesburg, South Africa,
Mr. Xia Hesheng, President of Huawei Digital Power Sub-Saharan Africa, said that the firm was positioning itself to actively participate in the drive the achieve the continent’s renewable energy goals.
“Countries across the African region are working towards their various respective development goals and hydro-electric sources lagging in supplying sufficient grid power, renewable energy is playing an increasingly important role and is expected to contribute 22% of the continent’s total energy consumption by 2030, explained Hesheng. Presently, less than half of the over 1 billion people in Africa have access to electricity, with just 48.4% people in Sub-Saharan Africa having access against a global average of 90.5%.
“Huawei Digital Power integrates digital and power electronics technologies by using bits to manage watts and in the process providing smart digital energy solutions that cover generation, transmission, distribution, usage, and storage.”
The event, which brought together more than 30 channel partners from across Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighted the importance of ecosystem building in meeting the region’s energy needs with renewables and Solar PV. Xia Hesheng highlighted Huawei’s technological strength in PV, and its channel strategy.
“Huawei is committed to building a strong ecosystem in Africa,” he added stating that in doing so, the firm aims to secure the profitability of partners, simplifying policies and processes for easier cooperation, and provide our partners with strong support in areas including marketing and capacity building.
Hein Engelbrecht, CEO of ICT supplier and valued Huawei partner Mustek, shared an outlook on how the two companies are charting a shared growth path.
“Mustek and Huawei’s partnership is built on trust and shared understanding,” he said. “We believe that these new ingredients will go a long way to ensure us being the choice for solar solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa within the next five years.”
Jason Knight, Head of Business Development of Kathea Energy, a Value Added Partner (VAP) of Huawei Digital Power in South Africa since 2018, shared the successful experiences the company has had with Huawei Digital Power.
“The partnership has gone from strength to strength,” he said. “We look forward to continually growing Huawei’s market share in South Africa, and further expanding into Sub-Saharan Africa, and are proud to be associated with Huawei, the global leader in solar solutions.”