“Size, large investments in R&D and long-standing experience in telecommunications." Those are the most important assets of Huawei, Sam Wilkinson, Senior Analyst at IHS Markit, told pv Europe at the event.
10.5 GW inverters shipped in 2015
Last year the Chinese based company shipped 10.5 GW of solar PV inverters globally. Huawei holds 45 training centers and 16 R&D centers worldwide. In 2015 Huawei generated over $62 billion in revenue and ploughed over 15 percent of that back into R&D. That’s around $9 billion.
In the R&D Center in Stockholm focus is on inverter topology and software; in the European headquarters in Nürnberg, it is on inverter architecture and design. Recently the company expanded its European supply center in Eindhoven/Netherlands together with logistics partner DHL.
Cooperation with Kilowattsol
This June Huawei Solar started its cooperation with Kilowattsol SAS, one of the European market leaders in yield assessment for PV projects. According to Xavier Duval the Lyon based company assessed 42 percent of the bidded PV plants in France. The focus is on pooled ground-mount and rooftop PV projects with a capacity of more than five MW. “We see great potential in the internet of solar and further digitalization of Smart PV plants with Huawei as the leading company in this area”, Daval told pv Europe.
Increased engagement with Amarenco in France
Since 2014, Irish based independent power producer Amarenco has partnered with Huawei. “We are in the stage of enhancing our cooperation with Huawei and our projects in France”, Alain Desvigne, Chief Operating Officer told pv Europe. Within the last two years Amarenco invested over 300 million Euros in French solar projects with a share of 50 percent ground-mount and rooftop. Amarenco installed over 2.000 Huawei string inverters in France.
Smart I-V curve diagnosis enables full string inspection
FusionSolar of Huawei includes precise string-level management, natural cooling, power-line communications, tracking system integration and I-V curve diagnosis. Smart I-V curve diagnosis enables a full inspection of all PV strings, Guoguang Chen, General Manager for Huawei Solar Europe explains. An onsite IV detector only allows to spot-check one to five percent of all strings. For a 100 MW plant this takes one week, requires two to three persons and can lead to yield losses of more than 1000 kWh. Huawei`s smart I-V curve diagnosis works in a one-click mode. Automatic scanning only takes one second, report issuing for one subarray seven minutes. Inspection accuracy and diagnosis effectiveness are certified by TÜV.
In the second quarter of 2017 Huawei plans to expand its FusionSolar solutions with an energy management system also for residential applications. (HCN)
Related news:
http://www.pveurope.eu/News/Solar-Generator/Solar-inverters-our-insight-stories-at-a-glance
