Today, global technology trends are not limited only to innovations in the network industry like 5G, but also include cloud computing, AI, and more importantly, the application of digital technology in the energy industry.
The main goal is to meet the demands of sustainable development and carbon neutrality, which is currently a priority in many countries around the world – including Thailand. A report from the annual summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) indicates that ICT is expected to help other industries reduce carbon emissions by 12.1 billion tons by 2030, with more than 1.8 billion tons of this being in the power generation sector alone. With regard to power generation, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that the adoption of digital technologies could reduce annual power generation costs by US$80 billion between 2016 and 2040. These factors have led technology leaders like Huawei to focus more on the ‘digital power’ sector in terms of business direction, innovation development, and investment for the future of a sustainable world with smart technology.
Huawei’s southern factory rooftop PV plant at Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen
In Thailand, Huawei Technologies (Thailand) Co., Ltd. established its Digital Power business in June 2021, with the same objectives as Huawei’s global vision, which are innovations in clean power generation, energy digitalization, transportation electrification, green ICT power infrastructure, and integrated smart energy. By the end of 2021, Huawei Digital Power will have helped customers generate 482.9 billion kWh of green power and saved about 14.2 billion kWh of electricity. These efforts have resulted in a reduction of nearly 230 million tons of CO2 emissions – the equivalent of planting 320 million trees.
The core of carbon neutrality for Huawei is its carbon emission reduction organization, emphasis on electric power, and adaptation into a smart organization. This makes Huawei’s Digital Power focus on three key elements: power generation, energy consumption, and energy storage. For power generation, Huawei is developing clean power systems that primarily rely on renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar, and energy storage. For energy consumption, Huawei focuses on promoting full electrification in the transportation industry with DriveONE solutions, including developing green, efficient, and intelligent ICT power infrastructure solutions. For energy storage, Huawei uses AI, big data, cloud, and IoT technologies to build intelligent energy storage systems.
At the Huawei Global Analyst Summit (HAS) 2022, Huawei shared information about the solar system technology of its southern factory rooftop Smart PV plant, installed at the Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. The capacity of the southern factory rooftop PV plant is sufficient to generate about 17 GWh per annum. This technology brings three core values to customers: active safety, higher yields, and a better experience. The system has AI-powered active arcing protection, which helps enable the inverter continuously record and identify new arcing noise waveforms during operation so that the more the inverter gets used, the smarter and safer it becomes. Huawei also uses AI to automatically generate a suitable layout for solar panels, which takes only 5 seconds, and when it is used in a real-world environment, the system can be monitored to increase the yield of solar power generation.
At the event, Ken Hu, Huawei’s Rotating Chairman, gave a keynote speech on Huawei’s approach to innovation and building a greener, more intelligent world: “We will strengthen our approach to innovation, equip all industries to go digital and be intelligent, and help build a low-carbon world. These are key to our future company growth. Huawei aims to increase the efficiency of electricity generation and energy consumption with digital technology for the development of a low-carbon society, redefining the PV sector with AI, cloud, and other capabilities to boost the generation of renewable energy and develop system-level low-carbon solutions for green ICT infrastructure. This will focus on wireless base stations and data centers as well as boosting business resilience and ensuring steady development. We have to keep the ball rolling through nonstop innovation, and creating value for customers and society. We look forward to working more closely with our customers and partners to build a greener, more intelligent world.”
Huawei also released the Green Development 2030 Report at the HAS 2022 Conference, which is the latest report under the Intelligent World 2030 Report, representing Huawei’s vision for the future and which is also considered a master plan for development in the ICT industry and other industries. The report is based on industry insights, data and best practices that Huawei has gathered over the years, including data from over 100 industry experts and over 30 external organizations, including government organizations, industry associations, research institutes, and private organizations.
For the Thai market, Mr. Abel Deng, CEO of Huawei Technologies (Thailand) Co., Ltd., shared his point of view that green development would help promote economic growth while ensuring the sustainable function of natural resources and social well-being. Abel stressed how digitalization has become the key to supporting Thailand’s and the world’s recovery and growth. In the future, digital technologies including 5G, cloud, and AI will assume a primary role for driving economic growth. Apart from playing a vital role in driving the digital economy, digitalization is also the key to a low-carbon society and the key to Thailand’s sustainable development. This is true to the extent that if there were no ‘digital’, there would be no green development.
“As Thailand is committed to the visionary goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 and net-zero carbon by 2065, in order to achieve this goal, we need to start with Thailand’s top three CO2 emission sectors: the power industry (37%), transportation (29%), and industrial emissions (28%). With Huawei’s new Digital Power, PV solutions and intelligent energy sites, Huawei has rapidly become a market leader, and recently launched a leading Smart PV industrial solution that digitally generates electricity from solar power, FusionSolar Residential Smart PV, for the first time for Thai residences by integrating AI and Cloud with PV for optimal energy generation. We also have plans to launch new products and services continuously to meet the needs of a sustainable future,” said Mr. Abel.
Huawei realizes Thailand’s capabilities and needs to support the country in achieving sustainable development goals. This is the reason that Huawei launched its Digital Power Business Unit to serve Thai customers in 2021. As the leader in green energy solutions, ICT partnerships, and digital transformation enablers, Huawei continues to innovate and support renewable energy through working with government and industry partners to make our world a better place, including bringing digitalization to everyone, every home, and every organization. Huawei continues to work with partners and related government agencies to make a digital and sustainable Thailand.
Source: Carl Byoir & Associates