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Interview with Robert von Wahl, Director EV Charging Europe at Sungrow: We need more harmonization!

Nomen est omen: Sungrow is one of the world's leading manufacturers of inverters and battery storage technologies – and plans further growth with solar energy. They also aim to venture into charging infrastructure. We inquired about how the complete Sungrow packages will look in the future.

Spoke plainly at the Power2Drive: Robert von Wahl, Director EV Charging Europe at Sungrow
Spoke plainly at the Power2Drive: Robert von Wahl, Director EV Charging Europe at Sungrow
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Gregor Soller

In Germany as well, where Sungrow has had a branch since 2011 and employs 140 people, numerous customers have already implemented large PV projects with Sungrow products, for example, a central inverter solution for EnBW's 187-megawatt power plant in Werneuchen, 30 kilometers northeast of Berlin. This is one of the largest subsidy-free photovoltaic projects in Germany. Clearly, the manufacturer was also present at the Smarter E in Munich – and for the first time, in addition to a large stand for PV, battery storage products, and electrolyzers, they were also present with their own EV-Charging stand at Power2Drive. The focus there was on HPC charging. Robert von Wahl, Director Charging Europe at Sungrow Germany, explained to us why this needs to be considered separately and where, despite a great willingness to expand, some stumbling blocks can lie.

Sungrow is primarily known for inverters and solar systems, even on the water, so why is it now planning to enter the charging infrastructure business?

Von Wahl: You are not the only ones who primarily perceive Sungrow this way. Therefore, I would like to briefly explain our background in Europe: When I started at Sungrow almost 7 years ago, there were 28 of us in Europe. Now, 550 people work in various European branches, and we are slowly approaching 600. I myself switched to the EV-Charging sector as Director in October 2023. Basically, Sungrow has four strategic business units in Europe. First: Photovoltaic inverters, second: battery storage. Third: Green Hydrogen electrolyzers, where we have been selected as the supplier for the largest Green Hydrogen project in the world in China, and fourth: Charging – as a stand-alone solution, but of course also in the overall system with Sungrow inverters and battery systems.

In this overall system, most customers are likely to notice Sungrow?

Von Wahl: It is true that Sungrow is particularly well-known thanks to its inverters and battery storage. Currently, we see that outside the residential sector, meaning in commercial and large-scale projects, there are relatively few overlaps of PV, batteries, and charging stations in one project. However, this has been changing with increasing speed over the past few months.

What distinguishes your DC stations from other providers?

Von Wahl: All our DC stations have an isolated air-cooling concept, where the electronics chamber is hermetically separated from the air-cooling chamber. This allows us to offer IP65 protection class and C5 corrosion protection. On the other hand, it reduces maintenance effort as no filter mats, for example, are used. In this context, I like to mention that we have our own R&D center in Amsterdam, where 14 colleagues currently work and primarily conduct compatibility tests with various car brands and models. Backend integration, firmware adaptation, and customer support also take place here, and we develop new products for the EU markets.

There are still issues with harmonization and compatibility between countries?

Von Wahl (smiling): You could put it that way: There is, similar to photovoltaics, a large umbrella under which particularly the large European nations formulate their own rules, and we still see very little harmonization here, quite the opposite. Tending new, technically demanding requirements keep emerging – sometimes it feels as if the certification industry has become its own industry. But jokes aside, many of these requirements are justified, especially in the field of cybersecurity, and we are glad to have our own EU team here. This way, we can quickly adapt hardware and software and make localizations.

What does your current EV charging technology portfolio look like?

Von Wahl: Let's start with AC technology: We offer everything from seven to 22 kW, mostly as a hybrid solution with battery and hybrid inverter. This ecosystem is controlled by our Sungrow-owned software solution, iSolarCloud. In addition, we also offer stand-alone AC charging stations for private, semi-public, and public sectors with MID meters. This market is currently very competitive, which is why we are focusing on fast and ultra-fast charging. Here we see excellent potential with calibration law-compliant, AFIR-compliant payment solutions, and increasing power outputs with our charging stations IDC180E and IDC480E. We received the first units of these as a 'Christmas gift' in December 2023, and we have successfully implemented several projects with our customers and partners in over 10 European countries since then.

Are you planning even higher power classes, and do you combine these with your existing portfolio?

Von Wahl: Naturally. And here we see an added value that Sungrow can offer. Particularly due to network capacity constraints and to provide additional grid services, our customers can combine our DC charging stations with our Powerstack with a few hundred kWh or our Powertitan with up to a few hundred MWh in a project. And here we see great potential especially along highways, for truck, bus, and fleet charging.

Can you quantify that?

Von Wahl: We potentially have 30 million vans, 6.5 million trucks, and 720,000 buses in the European Union. We see great potential in the EU regulations for decarbonization. Of course, the expansion of AC must also be pushed, but DC charging is just as important to achieve our climate goals. For this market, we are developing our IDC640E charging station with 16 power modules each with 40 kW based on our IDC480E with 16 power modules each with 30 kW. Very importantly: We develop and produce our power modules ourselves.

You would have the advantage of providing everything from one source: inverters, batteries, and charging technology. Can you not leverage or promote further synergies here?

Von Wahl: First and foremost, we aim to support our customers and partners in their projects and to provide added value. We currently see a strong trend that EV-Charging customers have the greatest interest in storage in the ultra-fast-charging sector. Often, there is not enough space for photovoltaic systems. Or, to be more specific: In the Netherlands, grid availability is so limited that often only 50 to 100 kW per gas station is available. Expanding the grid, however, takes four to five years and is thus the biggest obstacle to the mobility transition. Here we can offer a solution with our Powerstack and Powertitan.

Wouldn't fast chargers with battery storage be a good solution? There are also numerous new products here?

Von Wahl: For DC charging, we rely on an AC-coupled storage solution to provide our customers with flexibility. In our opinion, DC coupling brings technical and cost disadvantages. Essentially, we could offer everything from one source and align a PV system in the background.

Which brings us to the software – do you also offer backend systems and software?

Von Wahl (smiling): We don’t offer backend systems ourselves, but we are of course happy to support the integration of backends with our charging stations. Currently, we have already integrated more than 30 different backends. Additionally, we also offer our own software, iEnergycharge. This is primarily used for charging purposes without billing and for remote service for our colleagues from after-sales service. For complete systems consisting of hybrid inverters, battery storage, and charging stations, we also offer our own Sungrow energy management system.

But wouldn’t you face problems with Chinese products in Europe?

Von Wahl: In the field of cybersecurity, we of course adhere to European regulations and demonstrate the appropriate compatibility with certifications. The customer can also use their own EMS here, using the protocols from OCCP or Modbus TCP for integration.

What are other factors that are hindering the rapid expansion of infrastructure?

Von Wahl: In our experience, we are still at the very beginning of our capabilities. These are usually questions like how to get 10 megawatts of charging power when the grid only provides one megawatt – or how the whole thing is economically viable, even when electricity prices, as is currently the case, are falling again. There are currently an incredible number of inquiries for our products, but also many hurdles on the way to 100% electrification of mobility. However, all of these can be overcome!

The interview was conducted by Gregor Soller

Background:

Sungrow Power Supply Co., LTD (“Sungrow”) was founded in 1997 by Prof. Cao Renxian and is a leader in the research and development of solar inverters. As of December 2023, Sungrow is the PV inverter brand with the highest bankability worldwide, with over 515 GW of installed capacity and has the largest R&D team in the industry. In addition, the company offers a wide product portfolio: alongside PV inverters and energy storage systems for commercial and industrial projects and residential buildings, Sungrow is an internationally recognized partner for floating PV systems. In the PV market, Sungrow supplied installations in over 170 countries with its products.

In 2019, Sungrow opened the largest inverter factory in the world. The company’s global annual production capacity reaches 330 GW, including 25 GW of overseas production. The company's grand plan is to become one of the world's leading providers of clean energy conversion technology.

What does this mean?

According to Sungrow, the potential of solar energy is far from being exhausted. As an all-in provider from inverters, transformer stations, to storage and charging solutions, the company sees a bright future, especially in public projects.

 

Translated automatically from German.
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