Digital Power Business Development Executive Riaan de Leeuw
The global energy industry is undergoing a shift — from source dependent to clean, technology-driven power that will create new economic growth while promoting sustainable development and a better, greener world for future generations. This is according to Dr Fang Liangzhou, Global President of Huawei’s Digital Power Division. “Digital power is committed to integrating digital and electronic technologies to develop clean power and enable energy digitalisation to bring on an energy revolution for better and a greener future.”
Digital Power Business Development Executive Riaan de Leeuw says to prove its commitment, Huawei has spent $100-billion on research and development over the past 10 years, and promises to spend an equal amount in the next five years. This is what has set Huawei apart from the rest — though it started as a device company, it is now a leading global ICT enterprise responsible for fundamental technologies that drive market change. Digital Power is one of the flagship divisions for sustainable solutions for a better tomorrow.
Big data is the buzzword of the day, but big data requires big capacity, big cooling — and more problematically, big power. This is according to Marc Matthews, a senior solutions manager for Huawei Data Centres. “There is monumental growth in the data centre space in Africa at the moment, but with this hypergrowth comes a tremendous strain on our electrical grids,” he explains.
He says it is up to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and industry leaders to address these problems to ensure a sustainable future — for people and the planet. “In our data centres we have introduced low-power technologies, focused on energy efficiencies,” he explained. “We make sure it is optimised, make sure that equipment is containerised so that cooling is more efficient, and of course renewable energy solutions,” he said.
In the clean power generation sector, he says Huawei creates new power systems that primarily rely on renewable energy, while work in the energy digitalisation sector comprises building digital twins of the energy world and streamlining energy production and use. When it comes to the green ICT power infrastructure sector, Matthews says there is a focus on building green, low-carbon, intelligent data centres and communications networks.
Furthermore, in the green transportation sector, Huawei has redefined driving and safety and accelerated the electrification of transportation with electric vehicles, giving consumers a range of 200km on just a 10-minute charge.
Coupled with integrated smart energy solutions, Huawei works with partners to build low-carbon buildings and campuses, thereby promoting the shift toward low carbon cities.
In Africa, data centres are booming, says DCS Business Lead MEA, Lee Perrin. This has to do with the continent’s GDP, growing population and urbanisation, broadband adoption latency and regulations like data sovereignty laws which specify that 80% of the data generated on the continent must be stored here.
Africa also has tremendous solar resources to tap into for energy, and the expanding field offers many new job opportunities to tap into. Dr Rethabile Melamu is CEO of the South African Photovoltaic Association (SAPVIA). She says the country’s current power crisis should be seen as an opportunity to unlock the regulatory environment needed for renewable energy to gain momentum as the power source of choice.