HARTING contributes to the development of green and clean energy

Interview with
Bo Chen, Managing Director HARTING Greater China

In March 2022, the "14th Five-Year Plan" entered its second year. The climate protection goals set out there are also reflected in the government's declaration on work. With these goals in mind, an economic and social system change was rapidly implemented throughout the country.

Development of green and clean energy

From the perspective of energy production, "by 2030, the total installed capacity of wind power and solar power will reach more than 1.2 billion KW". As a key task, it has been included in the “Action Plan for Carbon Dioxide Peaking Before 2030” issued by the State Council in October 2021. In connection with the incentive policies of the central and local governments, renewable and clean energy dominated by wind and solar power has ushered in a new round of explosive and rapid growth.

However, renewable energy is susceptible to the weather, its power generation is unstable, and it is difficult to achieve a balance between supply and demand. Consequently, the energy storage market represented by lithium batteries has also developed rapidly.

From the perspective of energy consumption, industry is one of the main areas of carbon emissions, which has an important impact on the overall realisation of peak carbon emission in China. Improving the level of industrial electrification, energy conservation and emission reduction driven by automation and intelligence, while promoting the integrated development of digitisation and intelligence in the industrial field – these aims and objectives have represented the major focus for a long time.

Opportunities and challenges

With the rapid development of green and clean energy industry, the whole industrial chain is forced to reduce costs and increase efficiency by "the connection to grid at an equal price".

Manufacturing, installation, operation and maintenance personnel are constantly asked to achieve more efficient output with lower installation and operation costs, and the whole industrial chain has entered a healthy cycle of "cost reduction - rising demand - intensified competition at the supply side - further cost reduction".

Due to COVID-19, the remote working mode adopted under the control measures gives manufacturers a greater incentive to invest in automation equipment. Many enterprises have accelerated the pace of building smart factories by means of automation and intelligent upgrading.

On the other hand, the continuous reversal of the epidemic has also brought great challenges to the supply chain, which requires the upstream and downstream enterprises of the supply chain to cooperate more actively and flexibly.
These challenges mean unlimited opportunities for HARTING. HARTING believes that the new energy industry has great potential by making full use of the advantages of China's industrial chain aggregation and high industry concentration and coordinating the development of the industrial chain with scientific and technological innovation.

How to deal with them

Scientific and technological innovation

Scientific and technological innovation is the key factor to promote the development of green and clean energy and achieve the goal of "peak carbon emissions and carbon neutralisation". To give full play to the supporting and leading role of scientific and technological innovation, we must improve the system and mechanism of scientific and technological innovation, strengthen innovation ability, and accelerate the green and low-carbon scientific and technological revolution. Technical talents, diversified knowledge, knowledge application and encouraging technical cooperation are the four elements to promote innovation.

Industry coordination

As "the connection to grid at an equal price" has been determined, reducing capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operating expense (OPEX) has become the key to reduce the levelised cost of energy (lCOE). This depends on the flexible cooperation of upstream and downstream members of the whole value chain to jointly seek and implement new schemes and processes. Component suppliers must participate more intensively in the R&D, design and manufacturing of new energy industry.
 

HARTING's unique value for the development of green and clean energy

Keep exploring industrial scenarios with a focus on heavy-duty connection solutions

Since 1998, HARTING has begun to provide a series of high-quality products and services for the development of China's industry.

HARTING’s Han® connectors are used to connect high-power components, data and signal stable transmission. Their fast installation techniques, long-lasting reliability and simple maintenance have made the series a benchmark in the industry, which helps to reduce the ownership cost of the whole life cycle of the respective equipment.

In connection with the in-depth development of offshore wind energy, the demands made on connectors are more rigorous due to multiple adverse environmental factors such as climate, salt mist and humidity. Through in-depth customisation, HARTING is providing the industry with heavy-duty connector products featuring reliability, sealing ability, corrosion resistance and maintenance-free service.

In recent years, the energy storage market represented by lithium batteries has developed dynamically. Han® S series connectors are specially developed for modular battery energy storage system. The new safe connection technology can accelerate the installation and operation efficiency of energy storage system based on battery module, so as to meet the new requirements of higher voltage and current and better protection of China's lithium battery industry, and then serve the global new energy market.

However, when selecting a connector, it is not its cost that matters, but the reliability. The uptime and availability of the equipment are the key. Once the connector fails, there will be system efficiency loss, maintenance cost and even safety accidents. As for HARTING, quality is uncompromising. HARTING has been focusing on process orientation for many years and has formulated clear standards covering product development, manufacturing, logistics and customer service to maximise customer orientation, pursue efficiency and achieve perfection.

Outlook into the future

More than connection

HARTING has never been a company that only produces connectors. HARTING has always been committed to innovating advanced technologies for the three lifelines, data, signal and power. Just like Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) technology, as the industry leader, HARTING has cooperated with leading technology enterprises in the industry to establish the "SPE industrial partner network", which is committed to building a new ecosystem to accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing industry.

Innovation centre in the industry

Adhering to the vision of "shaping the future with people-oriented technologies", HARTING has established two innovation centres in Shanghai and Shenzhen to realise full cooperation and common innovation with other technologically-leading enterprises and institutions.
By sharing and exchange of ideas in an open environment to promote innovation, HARTING's innovation centre not only manufactures valuable products, but also works with upstream and downstream members of the local industrial chain and relevant scientific research institutions to customise and develop high-value solutions to provide excellent value for the green and clean energy industry.