I had authored several articles about Huawei during the peak period of the pandemic. Unlike other corporations, Huawei, as one of the world’s technology giants, did not only deal with the problems that arose due the disruption of supply chains. It also defended itselfagainst the wrongful accusations and judicial restraints brought against the company.
In this process, Huawei did not stop its efforts to provide “technology for everyone” and today it is doing its best for a “greener economy”. My previous articlesabout Huawei, which are available on emrealkin.comboth in Turkish and English, touched upon the democratic management of the company and thepluralistic nature of its shareholder structure. I have also had the chance to keep in touch with officers atHuawei’s headquarters in Turkey who very kindly helped me keep up to date with the latest developments in the company.
I attended a number of Huawei events in London, Barcelona, and Shenzhen before. These events enabled me to stay informed of and learn more about the company’s endeavors in various fields such as health, smart cities, finance, education, and industry and they also provided me with the opportunity to express my expectations from Huawei about music and entertainment. To me, the concept of “fun” is not just about taking pictures. That is why I care that Huawei “listens to the market” to address different consumer demands.
Recently, I have been following Huawei’s research and strategies on “green economy”. In an effort similar to that undertaken by Huawei, I share a shocking slide with the audience at each presentation I give. The slide shows that there is a significant increase in carbon dioxide emissions globally after each climate conference, highlighting the tragedy about how those who say “We want a green world” still continue to pollute the environment. Unfortunately, we are faced with hypocrisy and injustice, two root causes of all human sufferings, two prominent vices that dominate every act of the West. If we spent a tenth of the increasing amounts of money spent on armaments on efforts to prevent COPD and air pollution, the world would probably be a better place. Nevertheless, still seeing the efforts of institutions and individuals to prevent further pollution of the planet makes me happy.
Huawei believes that digital technologies are indispensable for a greener world. As known, digital transformation sadly caused negative effects on global warming in the recent past. For this reason, Huawei has issued its “Green Development 2030” report, which presents a clear goal: “Building low-carbon buildings, factories, campuses, and cities to achieve green development. Using Green Energy and Green ICT to do so.”
The report also explains in what ways key industries will complete their Green Transformation process.Focusing particularly on the energy efficient nature of digital infrastructure, Huawei details continuously growing share of renewable energy as an integral part of green industries, and even proposes a new assessment model for green development. The following are some of many projections for “Green Development 2030” that we discover as we go through the report.
- More than 50% of electricity will be generated from renewable energy by 2030.
- The share of electricity in global final energy consumption will reach 30% and the global capacity of energy storage systems will grow by 20-fold.
- The industry will go “green,” and every 10,000 workers will work with 390 robots.
- All new buildings will operate at net-zero carbon by 2030. By 2050, all buildings will be net-zero carbon.
- Digital infrastructure will become 100 times more energy efficient by 2030.
- The global telemedicine market will increase by ten-fold while online education will grow by around 23-fold. Billions of users will take virtual tours.
So how will these projections become reality? Some of them will happen when companies rapidly start renovating themselves for the “decarbonization” processand other green requirements stipulated by international environmental treaties, conventions, and other agreements. On the other hand, they will focus on digitalization in order not to fall behind in globalcompetition. In line with these efforts, factories, buildings, houses, and all other carbon emitting elements will enter a process designed to enable zero carbon emission. Offering a roadmap and a philosophy for these breakthroughs that will both save the planetand help companies not fall behind in the competition, Huawei says “Don’t worry because I have the solution”. I must say that I find this statement strongly convincing, knowing Huawei’s works in the world’s largest cities and most advanced industries.
I was delighted to read the transcript of a keynote speech titled “Innovating nonstop for a greener intelligent world” by Mr. Ken Hu, Deputy & Rotating Chairman at Huawei. Pointing out that Huawei has been innovating unceasingly to create value for customers and society for more than 30 years, Hu says R&D is a core part of Huawei’s DNA and they have been steadily increasing their investment in that domain. Last year alone, Huawei re-invested 22% of its annual revenue back into Research and Development, an impressive ratio indeed.
“We are actively attracting world-class talent with world-class challenges and working with them to push the limits of science and technology”, Ken Hu echoes the company’s rapidly growing progress in connectivity. I was particularly excited to learn about Huawei’sefforts to bringing 10 Gbps everywhere with 5.5G and F5.5G. Frankly, it made me think what types of novelties going one step further would bring to the humanity. Obviously, all of these breakthroughs will require new computing, software, hardware, infrastructure, and communication architectures. In his speech, Hu says that they are working on a “ground-breaking peer-to-peer computing model” that will significantly improve system performance, considering that existing architectures greatly limits processing capabilities. Since not all of my readers are engineers or programmers, I try to explain the technical details in the simplest terms possible.
“Revolutionary Entertainment Solutions”
Huawei soon launches a new cloud service product, MetaStudio, a cloud-based digital content pipeline enabling development of digital content. “Entertainment” is one of Huawei’s strong suits. According to Ken Hu, a 90-minute 3D movie, whichnormally requires almost six months to be fully rendered, will be rendered only in two weeks thanks toMetaStudio’s millions of render nodes.
It is undeniable that both companies and customers are severely hit by the chip crisis. Mr. Hu says that “people no longer look for more devices. What they really want is more intelligent experience.” And I am one hundred percent in agreement with him. To be honest, I am tired of so many devices that are connected to each other at home or at work. The low download speed in countries like Turkey is driving people mad since it is slowingthings further down instead of speeding them up. Thankfully, Huawei comes into play as a lifesaver, promising us a “user-centric Seamless AI Life Experience,” which encompasses almost all aspects of life. Alongside a number of cloud services focusing on different domains such as office, home, sports, travel and entertainment, Huawei also offers smart devices allowing users to monitor their vital data, even generate health reports on the cloud.
Most importantly, all of these innovations are designed in line with the “green development”. Ken Hu talks about a “cloud-based” world that requires a significant amount of investment in numerous sectors and domains including mining, agriculture, manufacturing, construction, healthcare, education, customs areas, logistics, energy production and consumption, even sports. The world-class talents at Huawei greatly helps the tech giant achieve all of its dreams, one by one. Frankly, as a Turk, I am proud that Prof. Erdal Arıkan,who invented polar codes for 5G, made such an outstanding contribution to communications technologyby being deeply inspired by the vision of Huawei directors, and strongly encouraged by the technical contributions of its engineers.
There is one crucial thing we cannot deny: energy isexpensive, and it is difficult to supply it. That is to say, we may come to a point where we can no longer supply energy even if we have money. We know that 40% of carbon emissions worldwide originate from energy generating processes. As we keep producing and storing energy, current technologies are causing irreparable damage to the environment. Huawei says that this problem can be solved not only by using energy units that emit less carbon, but also by making all peer-to-peer architectures carbon-neutral. The company does not have an approach that says “I’ll do my part and the rest is your problem” either. Evidently, it has the solution for all the architectures. We know for a fact that Huawei implemented these solutions in some countries, and the result was successful. We strongly recommend my readers out there to subscribe to Huawei newslettersas they will give you an insightful idea in figures about not only what the company is doing, but also where the world is heading.
Turkey, a country that is highly dependent on oil and gas imports, and businesses, which will eventually have to meet the requirements of the European Green Deal in order to survive, need to take a good look at Huawei’s Green Development 2030 report, as it explains in detail what should be done for a smooth transition to green and digitized economy. Huawei also promises that it will offer effective solutions seeking to address the entire process. I think the company is giving an important message to those who are trying to scoutsolutions from different sources, saying it already has aturnkey solution available, that is built end-to-end andcan be easily implemented into a current process. Since we cannot escape the future, we should continue our journey with the strongest and the most loyal comrade.
