Huawei Digital Power has held the 2022 edition of its FusionSolar channel partner summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The event, bringing 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.
At present, just 48.4% of those inhabiting Sub-Saharan Africa have access to electricity against a global average of 90.5%. As the region looks to increase that percentage to meet its development goals, renewable energy will play an increasingly important role. In fact, renewable energy is expected to contribute 22% of Africa’s total energy consumption by 2030.
In his official opening address at the summit, Mr. Xia Hesheng, President of Huawei’s Southern Africa Digital Power Business, highlighted the company’s technological strength in PV, and its channel strategy.
“African countries have more than 40% of the world’s solar energy resources, but only one percent of the installed solar capacity,” he said. “Huawei Digital Power integrates digital and power electronics technologies. In effect, we use bits to manage watts, by providing smart digital energy solutions that cover generation, transmission, distribution, usage and storage.”
“Huawei is committed to building a strong ecosystem in Africa,” he added. “In doing so, we aim to secure the profitability of our partners, simplifying policies and processes for easier cooperation, providing strong support in areas including marketing and capacity building.”
Hein Engelbrecht, CEO of ICT supplier and Huawei partner Mustek, shared his outlook on how the two companies are charting a shared growth path.
“The partnership between Mustek and Huawei is built on trust and shared understanding,” he said. “We believe that these new ingredients will go a long way towards ensuring we are the preferred choice for solar solutions in Sub-Saharan Africa within the next five years.”
Jason Knight, Head of Business Development at Kathea Energy, a Value Added Partner (VAP) of Huawei Digital Power in South Africa since 2018, shared the successful experiences his company has had with Huawei.
“The partnership has gone from strength to strength,” he said. “We look forward to continually growing Huawei’s market share in South Africa and expanding further into Sub-Saharan Africa, and we are proud to be associated with Huawei, the global leader in solar solutions.”