New technologies for new opportunities in Africa

Huawei, the Chinese multinational telecommunications company, is also a rising global force in the global solar industry. As a manufacturer of smart string inverters and FusionSolar Smart PV solutions, the company has recorded a rapid rise up the inverter supplier rankings, coming out top in terms of megawatts shipped in GTM Research’s list of the top-10 inverter manufacturers of 2015.

As with all companies in the dynamic global solar industry, Huawei is constantly seeking out new markets, and is setting its sights on the opportunities emerging in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“We note that over the past two years, the PV industry in Sub-Saharan Africa has got into full swing,” says Yidong He, general manager of global solutions, at Huawei. “Solar energy is gradually becoming a major generation source, and we’re happy to see that.”

According to He, one of the key drivers for the company’s interest in renewable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa is the crucial need to protect the region’s fragile environment. “The Sub-Saharan Africa ecosystem is one of the best-protected areas of the world,” says He. “It is therefore right that renewable energy, particularly solar, is used as the main power source as it can ensure that economic development and ecosystem protection coexist, and that the old path to development followed in Asia and elsewhere, of first pollution and then governance, is not duplicated.”

Smart solutions

Huawei attributes its leading position in the inverter market to its commitment to and heavy investment in research and development. Overall the company has 176,000 employees worldwide, and 79,000 of these are R&D engineers.

In 2015, Huawei's R&D investment was CNY59.6 billion (US$9.0 billion), which accounts for 15.1% of its annual revenue. In 2015, sales revenue was CNY395 billion, an increase of 37% from a year earlier.

Huawei says it invests at least 10% of its revenue in R&D every year to maintain its leading edge in the world in terms of technologies and products. Huawei is also therefore recognised as a leader in technical innovation in the industry. The aim of innovation is to bring benefits to customers and provide cutting edge, high quality, and cost-efficient products and solutions to customers, the company maintains.

The result of this extensive investment is that the company is able to boast some impressive credentials.

“They offer high efficiency up to 99%, while multi-MPP trackers realise real-time and accurate string detection,” explains He. “The detection accuracy can reach 0.5%, six times higher than traditional centralised inverters. Multi- MPPT can also effectively reduce the influence caused by shadowing and string mismatch, dramatically improving the yields. A fully closed design ensures high-level protection based on our mature and advanced technology from communication.”

“IP65 protection makes our inverter versatile for all the hostile outdoor environmental conditions, such as high temperature, high levels of dampness, high altitude, extreme cold, sand, salt and mist. We use our own chipset Hisilicon and operating system to reduce the weight and heat dispersion. They contain no quick-wearing parts such as fuses or external fans, which makes them maintenance free. Furthermore, our inverters are open, supporting inputs of different types of equipment and parts like trackers and sensors.”

There has been much debate in recent years about central versus string inverters and the relative merits of each type of inverter architecture. For Huawei there is no doubt which is the better system.

“String is better,” says He. “String inverter design is not simply ideal for rooftops, which has been highly recognised by the public. Meanwhile, we have made comparisons between the two solutions from different perspectives; these show the better performance of string inverters as regards safety, yields, system cost, installation, operation and maintenance, monitoring, environmental adaptability and grid connection.

“It is tested and proved not simply in theory but also in the practical application from the customers’ projects, which offer yields 3% higher than other solutions. Our string inverters and solution have been widely applied for single projects over 100MW both in and outside China.”

Not just an inverter manufacturer

Aside from inverters, Huawei manufactures a number of other solutions that are all designed to maximise the success of PV arrays. One is its Anti-PID Module, designed to offer protection against potential-induced degradation, a problem that affects many PV arrays incorporating crystalline silicon modules and can cause significant power losses.

“Our patented anti-PID module can help avoid the potential-induced degradation effect without a PV-tie to ground directly, effectively guaranteeing human safety,” He says. “Power Line Communication (PLC) technology allows communication via power cables and removes the need for communication cables. The PLC is cable free and the communication bandwidth is much higher than RS485.”

The company also offers other products such as the smart array controller and smart management system. “The smart array controller integrates data logger, PLC module, Anti-PID Module and communication module,” He says. “It dramatically simplifies the system and network establishment, reducing the potential of faulty parts.”

The smart management system, meanwhile, is the core part of Huawei’s smart PV solution, He says, offering greater visibility and therefore efficiency in the management of PV assets. “Operations and maintenance (O&M) efficiency can be increased by over 50% through our smart PV solution. We have developed the advanced system for both plant and corporation levels, which can realise mobile and remote operation and maintenance globally,” He says.

Huawei solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, where climatic conditions can sometimes be extreme, Huawei says its solutions offer numerous advantages in terms of duraility.

“Parts of SSA have an extreme tropical climate with high temperatures and dampness,” says He. “Also severe dust-storms are not uncommon. Huawei's fully closed inverter design, protected to IP65, guarantees long-term operation with safety and reliability. Multi-MPP trackers enable high-accuracy detection and improve yields by over 3%. Our smart PV inverters become the brain of the plant, realising smart operation and maintenance with digital information and internet technology.”

Huawei is already active in the region, where it is focusing on how to use its smart PV technology help address the prevalance of power shortages. “Huawei attended the Africa Energy Exhibitions held in South Africa in 2014 and 2015 and has established close cooperation relationships with multiple local partners,” He says. “Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the global economic growth points in recent years. As the requirement for power is increasing because of continuous growth of GDP, the PV industry is imperative.”

Huawei highlights the extent to which economic growth in a number of African countries has outstripped that of European or American countries, highlighting Nigeria and South Africa as two examples.

“We think that Africa has become a new worldwide economic growth centre and therefore that energy demand will increase significantly,” He says. “According to Huawei's market analysis, it is highlighted in the entire Sub-Saharan Africa region that the development of the energy industry and speed of economic growth do not match. Governments have also realised the problem and are providing policy support. Therefore, we think that the entire region is of huge potential.”

He says Huawei is currently of the view that large/ utility-scale solar energy offers the greatest near-terms prospects for growth, but says that in the future it expects distributed and residential PV systems will become the mainstream applications. “Huawei provides a complete smart PV solution suitable for various scenarios and the solution has been successfully applied all over the world. We hope that we can play the role of an excellent partner that boosts the PV industry development in Africa through continuous efforts,” he adds.

Huawei already has a team of 20 in its Africa team, which includes the sales, products and service staff. The team is set to be expanded further in line with the growth of the market and its sales in the region.

Although it’s early days for Huawei’s involvement in African solar, the company has already attracted the attention of some key stakeholders in the region, including Wisdom Ahiataku-Togobo, director of renewable energy at the Ministry of Energy in Ghana.

He says: “Huawei continuously deepens the cooperation with African countries in the ICT and electronic and electrical fields in recent years, and has made remarkable achievements. In addition, Huawei is the world's leading smart PV solution provider. We hope that Huawei will continue the win-win, long-term, and effective cooperation with Ghana in the renewable energy field to promote the PV industry development in Africa and make more positive contributions.”

FR：Shine Magazine