The "Solar Energy Storage Future Germany 2023" event, hosted by Energy Box, was a resounding success, ushering in a new era of discourse and progress in the renewable energy market.
This one-day event, held on 21st June in Munich, was organized by Energy Box, a global media company committed to promoting renewable energy. It gathered influential energy leaders and esteemed experts from the European industry, all converging to exchange their valuable insights on the solar market landscape, cutting-edge technologies, and the latest trends in development.
In an era marked by nations' commitments to carbon neutrality and reducing emissions, the gathering aimed to expedite sustainability efforts and facilitate the global shift towards clean energy.
The event delved into the most recent developments in the renewable energy sector, with a collaborative exploration of the opportunities within the global clean energy and green energy markets worldwide.
The opening ceremony was addressed by Dr Andreas Loschel, Professor and Envoy for Sustainability at Ruhr University Bochu, Kesavarth Savarimuthu, European Power Analyst at BloombergNEF and Andreas Hauer, Member of the Board of Directors at BVES Energy Storage Systems Association.
In his presentation, Loschel shared about German climate targets and how to achieve climate neutrality, including the critical areas for net-zero energy system transition. Focusing on climate neutral electricity market design, the Professor also presented recommendations for the action.
Similarly, in the presentation entitled “Energy Storage enables a Carbon-Neutral Future,“ Andreas Hauer presented various aspects of Energy Storage Solutions including the services & benefits, energy storage technologies and decarbonized energy system.
Regarding technologies, he shared about Thermal Energy Storage, Electrical Energy Storage and Chemical Energy Storage. “Energy storage enables energy supply at the right time in the right form (for thermal, electricity and mobility demand). Flexible Sector Coupling is crucial for decarbonising all sectors and defines new applications for energy storage,” Hauer concluded.
Likewise, Kesavarthiniy Savarimuthu made a special presentation on “Germany Power Market Outlook” and explained that the economics are already driving Germany’s transition.
BloombergNEF’s capacity outlook for renewables in Germany depicts more than 67GW of solar and wind capacity deployment. The figures state that net-zero requires 1.4x more renewables and clean dispatchable capacity. She added that more is needed to incentivise new renewables capacity build while the energy transition presents a $1.7tn investment opportunity.
The first session focused on “PPA auction- Hedging instrument in the market, regulatory instability as a threat to the PPA, and risk mitigation.”
It was participated by Roberto Pizzini, Head of PPA Origination at Galileo, Jan Knievel, Head of Origination at Enerparc, Daniel Peschel, Senior PPA Originator at Ampyr Solar Europe, Piotr Malik, Chief Operation Officer at Business Energy Solutions and Jaime Vazquez, PPA Director at Econergy Renewable Energy.
It was followed by a special presentation session.
Jack Xu, Oversea Technical Service Director at Tongwei Co. Ltd. made a special presentation on “Embracing the New Global PV Era.” Established in 1982, the company has 300+ subsidiaries worldwide. Regarding financial status, the company’s total assets stand at 18.95(Billion EUR), with 65.25% on YoY growth.
Xu shared about Tongwei "Dual Green" strategies and state-of-the-art factories, while the PV solutions include Residential, Commercial & Industrial and Utility-scale. He further explained about high efficiency module family including star products.
Tongwei has a global network of more than 40 countries, including Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Asia & Pacific, Oceania. “Tongwei is the first company in the PV industry to reach 100GW solar cell shipment. Environmental impact is based on 100GW efficient photovoltaic modules produced by Tongwei,” Xu shared.
Junning Xu, Product Manager at Growatt Germany, shared about “New Products for Residential and C&I: Full range of battery ready PV solution.” Sharing about the challenges of energy storage system, he mentioned high initial investment, efficiency and energy loss, scalability difficulties and system reliability and safety.
Meanwhile, he explained about battery interface integrated, Plug & Play easy installations, and mentioned, “The cost comparison with the traditional grid-tied inverter and the ability to add storage without additional retrofit costs can enable installers to offer storage to customers from the moment they install their initial PV system.”
In terms of its product, he shared “A MID 15KTL3-XH inverter provides 15kW full power AC output plus 15kW full power battery charge.”
Xu explained about various products and their major characteristics including extreme safety and reliability, whole system warranty among others.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Powell, Head of Hopewind Europe, shared about his company as a global leader in Wind Converters with over 100GW of renewable products installed throughout the world. Beyond China, the company has established teams in Latin America, South Korea, Pakistan, India and Europe.
He shared that the company’s portfolio extends beyond solar as it provides solutions to Energy Storage, Wind, Manufacturing, Transportation and Mining & Heavy Industry sectors. In terms of PV products, the company was listed as TOP 6 shipments in China's inverter market in 2022.
“Currently, our production capacity for PV inverters is around 20GW per year, wind has a production capacity of 20GW, Energy Storage PCS is around 10GW and SVG and VFD sits at around 1.8Gvar and 20k pcs respectively,” Powell remarked.
The event further dwelt on “ESG investment and Practice: Practice ESG concept and help enterprises achieve carbon neutrality goals and sustainable development.”
It was addressed by Dina Rebecca Lorentz, Head Legal Advisory ESG & Sustainable Finance at PPI AG, Yven Heine, Head of Sustainability & ESG iAP, Sara Pinto, Founder and Managing Director ESG ALLIANCE, Li Xu, Managing Partner at LXI Renewable Capital, Albrecht von Sydow, Head of ESG, ACE Alternatives, and Bob Zhang, General Sales Manager at Mingyang Smart Energy.
Furthermore, the event had a women-special session on “Global energy crisis - major trends to drive Utility-Scale, Mini-grids & Merchants in Germany & Europe & Other counties.”
Gloria Wohlfeil, Head of Business Development New Ventures at Stadtwerke Miinchen GmbH, Alina Sokolenko, Director ESG at Deloitte, Ezgi Ozcan, Head of Projects at Ecoligo GmbH, Lucia Kamati, Senior Project Manager at Africa GreenTec AG, Nikita Jayswal, Sustainability Services Manager at ENGIE Impact, Sarah Muller, CCO at Zolar and Ginevra Guzzi, Sr.Program Manager, EMEA Energy at Microsoft participated in the discussion and shared their views and insights.
This session was followed by a special presentation from Jiajun Ye, Product Center Product Manager at Risen Energy. The company, founded in 1986, has a capacity of 45GW in 2023. Ye briefed on Risen’s Production Revolution with special focus the products and the major characteristics that include cost factor, efficiency, reliability, sustainability.
To be noted, Risen Energy HJT Hyper-ion Solar Module’s Power reached 741.456W with 23.89% efficiency.
Ye also presented about products line-up, and project cases of Energy Storage System spread in different countries including China, Belgium and USA among others.
Meanwhile, Lloyd Li, Vice President at Antaisolar introduced the company and shared about the major products and features. Established in 2006, the company has been providing solutions in Japan, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Chile and Vietnam among others.
The company has been offering solutions in different segments like solar tracking system, ground mounting system, BIPV industrial solution and residential and C & I rooftop. The company’s annual production capacity stands at 25GW.
Li briefed that the company uses the best material with high-quality in its products to overcome the challenges, while uses the hardcore technology as the foundation for leadership.
It was followed by a presentation by Jinjian, Head of Sales Department, EMEA at Huasun, focusing on “HJT- The technology belonging to the present and the future.” HJT technology is said to be belonging to the present and the future with already existing 5GW HJT capacity in HUASUN, and more capacity on the way.
Huasun, which was founded in 2020, is a technological innovation enterprise specializing in the development and application of ultra-high efficienct N-type silicon based heterojunction (HJT) solar technology as well as the products' large-scale manufacturing. Its core products are HJT Solar Wafer/Cell/Module.
The brand is recognized as a Forerunner in New Photovoltaic Era Pioneer of HJT mass production with 20GW+ Production capacity by 2023E and 40GW+ Production capacity by 2025E.
The company has shipments across China, Bulgaria, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Tunisia among others, covering projects of different capacities. The official also explained about major products and their features, and expressed confidence of solar energy's future via higher product efficiency, more stable power generation performance, better quality assurance and platform-based technology expansion capabilities.
Following the presentations, the event dwelt on “Acceleration of RE expansion: attracting & securing capital for German and European projects.”
Thorvald Spanggaar d, Executive Vice President at European Energy A/S, Marco Schweer, Executive Director at Hamburg Commercial Bank, Maximilian Jahr, Vice President Business Development at Greencells Group, Kevin Ryan, Director Investments of NTR plc and martin Supancic, Acquisition Manager at Sonnedix Germany participated in the discourse including opportunities and challenges in the RE expansion in Europe.
The session was followed by a discourse on rooftop solar under the title “Rooftop solar is a boon for the modern clean energy world.” It was attended by Kai Buntrock, Managing Director at autarq GmbH, Joachim Rupp, CEO at Detra Solar, Lars Josten, CEO at Pfalzsolar GmbH, Barbara Wittenberg, CTO at 1KOMMA5 and Paulina Tymoszewicz, Procurement Manager at Greto Polska Sp.z o.o.
Meanwhile, Matthias Vetter, Head of Department Electrical Energy Storage at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE explained about BTM PV battery systems. Josh Wengert, Marketing Specialist at Menlo Electric, also made a special presentation in the event.
Likewise, Josh Wengert - Marketing Specialist at Menlo Electric on “Building together a Brighter Future - The Role of CSR in Green Business.”
Meanwhile, Energybox also recognized and celebrated exceptional companies for their valuable contributions to the renewable energy industry. More than 15 companies were awarded for their excellence and motivated to contribute further for the better green future.
As a media company, Energybox has already organized over 30 similar events across Pan Europe, Africa & Middle East, LATAM and Asia. Besides the physical conferences, it also hosts webinars, offers consulting services and covers 20+ countries.
