Huawei FusionSolar Channel Partner Summit fosters cooperation to boost Africa’s solar industry

Huawei Digital Power recently held the Huawei FusionSolar Channel Partner Summit 2022 in Johannesburg, South Africa. 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.

At present, just 48.4% people in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to electricity against a global average of 90.5%. As the region looks to increase that number 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 address opening the summit, Mr. Xia Hesheng, President of Huawei Digital Power Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighted Huawei’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 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.”