On June 17,2023,the APEC Business Leaders China Forum was held in Beijing.Hu Houkun,Huawei's rotating chairman and China representative of the APEC Business Advisory Council,delivered a keynote speech entitled"Integrated Innovation,Digital Technology Empowers Green Development".
Hu Houkun,Huawei's rotating chairman and China representative of the APEC Business Advisory Council.Image source:Organizing Committee of 2023APEC Business Leaders Forum
He believes that in terms of connectivity,bandwidth demand will increase by a hundred times,and we need to match the access demand from gigabit to 10G.In the future,downloading a 4K movie may only take one minute.He said that wherever there is data,calculations are needed,and every industry can benefit from calculations.He pointed out that digital technology plays a very important role in green development,participating in the low-carbon process of energy.For example,through super fast charging technology,a new energy vehicle can be fully charged in 15 minutes,alleviating range anxiety;Data technology can also help improve the dilemma of photovoltaic power generation relying on the weather,ensuring power generation stability,and so on.
Matching bandwidth requirements,downloading a 4K movie in the future may only take 1 minute
Hu Houkun believes that to achieve green development in society,intelligence and low-carbon are key measures.Huawei has further clarified that promoting the intelligent and low-carbon development of society is its core business strategy,and it is also the focus of technological innovation.
Nowadays,society has entered the digital age of virtual reality integration and the rapid development of artificial intelligence,and the intelligent world of interconnected things is accelerating its construction.Hu Houkun pointed out that in order to better grasp how the progress of digital technology will change the world,there are two key trends worth paying attention to:"Intelligent connections are everywhere,intelligent computing is everywhere.".
The core of an intelligent world is data,and the acquisition and transmission of data rely on connections.He believes that the upcoming Internet of Things has the following three characteristics:wider scope,larger quantity,larger bandwidth,faster speed,smaller latency,and more agile response.He gave an example that with the arrival of new business forms such as the metaverse and holographic imaging,bandwidth demand will increase by a hundred times,and we need to match the access demand from gigabit to 10G.This means downloading a 60GB 4K high-definition movie takes 1.3 hours in the 4G era,8 minutes in 5G,and less than 1 minute in the future.And you can also experience new businesses such as immersive 3D XR games,holographic teaching,and holographic conferences online.
Personal and industrial applications will be rewritten by artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT
"Data can only become intelligent through computation,and big data,artificial intelligence,and the recently popular ChatGPT are all concrete forms of computation."Hu Houkun believes that future computing is omnipotent,and wherever there is data,computing is needed.Every industry can benefit from calculations.In the field of meteorology,20 years ago,only one day of weather could be predicted,but now it is possible to accurately predict seven days;In the field of medicine,based on the large model of drug molecules,the research and development cycle of super antibacterial drugs has been shortened from several years to one month.
Hu Houkun said that now,a new era of artificial intelligence represented by ChatGPT has arrived,and we can boldly predict that all personal and industrial applications will be rewritten by this new artificial intelligence.Due to the ubiquitous computing power and the exponential growth in computing power demand,for example,by 2030,universal computing power will increase by 10 times and artificial intelligence computing power will increase by 500 times."We will build a large number of ICT infrastructure such as data centers and artificial intelligence computing centers.How to reduce the energy consumption of these facilities is also a challenge that green and low-carbon development needs to face."
Fill a car in 15 minutes with the latest ultra fast charging technology to alleviate range anxiety
In the energy industry,the current electricity production mainly relies on fossil fuels.Hu Houkun pointed out that"to change the energy structure,it is necessary to vigorously develop new energy and create a new energy system centered on electricity and dominated by new energy."In his speech,he mentioned Huawei's"bit management watt"concept,promoting the integration and innovation of power electronics technology and digital technology,developing clean energy and digitalization of traditional energy,and promoting energy transformation.
This includes promoting a shift from energy consumption to electrification.Taking new energy vehicles as an example,Huawei's latest liquid cooled super fast charging technology can achieve 1 second to charge 1 kilometer,and fully charge a car in 15 minutes,greatly alleviating the range anxiety of car owners and helping to promote the electrification process of transportation.
On the power production side,Hu Houkun stated that by vigorously promoting digital technologies such as 5G,AI,and cloud,traditional power plants and power grids can be digitally transformed.Currently,more and more traditional power plants are carrying out digital transformation work such as smart power plants.Through technologies such as the Internet of Things,artificial intelligence,and cloud computing,unmanned,remote diagnosis,and intelligent maintenance have been achieved,improving power generation efficiency and reducing energy consumption.
Data technology improves the dilemma of photovoltaic power generation relying on weather to ensure power generation stability
Digital technology can also fully leverage its value in the development of new energy sources such as solar and wind energy.Hu Houkun pointed out that taking photovoltaic power generation as an example,digital technology and power electronics technology can be integrated to make photovoltaic power stations generate electricity more smoothly,generate more electricity,integrate into the grid more easily,and accelerate new energy to become the main energy source.
It is reported that Gonghe County in Qinghai Province has the world's largest single photovoltaic power station,which has installed over 7 million photovoltaic panels and generates 2.2GW of electricity,covering an area of nearly 56 square kilometers.The challenges of power generation efficiency and operation and maintenance management for such a large-scale power plant can be imagined.Hu Houkun said that on the one hand,power generation relies on the weather for a living.Even on sunny days,it will be affected by changes in the angle of sunlight,cloud cover,and tree shade,reducing power generation.On the other hand,the power station has a large area,a large number of equipment,is located in a remote area,and the operation and maintenance workload is very large,time-consuming and labor-intensive.
It is worth mentioning that digital technology has helped photovoltaic power stations achieve"open source and cost saving".According to Hu Houkun,AI algorithms are integrated into photovoltaic inverters,which is equivalent to equipping photovoltaic brackets with an intelligent instructor.Based on cloud occlusion,cloud movement,and other conditions,the optimal rotation angle of the bracket can be calculated.Even in rainy and cloudy weather,it can capture more light and increase power generation by 1.5%.At the same time,drones and AI image recognition technology have been introduced into the operation and maintenance of power plants,achieving intelligent inspections.The inspection time has been shortened from nearly 2 months to 2 days,improving operation and maintenance efficiency while ensuring stable power generation performance.
Information and communication technology may reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by 20%
When it comes to"carbon footprint",many people may not be unfamiliar with it,which refers to the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions directly and indirectly generated by services or products throughout their entire lifecycle.In this forum,Hu Houkun emphasized another concept-"carbon fingerprints".It refers to the use of digital technologies such as ICT(Information and Communication Technology)to enable other industries to reduce carbon emissions."The smaller the carbon footprint,the better,and the larger the carbon footprint,the better,"said Hu Houkun.
According to the latest research results from the environmental industry organization GeSI(Global Association for the Promotion of Electronic Sustainability),information and communication technology has the potential to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by 20%,which is 10 times its own carbon emissions.Hu Houkun gave an example that the airport collaborative decision-making system can reduce aircraft taxiing waiting time.If China reduces the waiting time for each flight by 1 minute,it can reduce fuel consumption by 4400 tons per year.
In addition,glass manufacturing is a typical high-temperature,high-energy consuming industry,and also one of the key industries with high carbon emissions.In the glass production process,natural gas consumption is large,usually accounting for 35-40%of the glass production cost.Hu Houkun stated that optimizing natural gas consumption is the key to improving corporate operating profits and green development.
He used the key equipment in the production process,such as kilns,as an example to demonstrate that in the past,data such as temperature and air intake in kilns were collected manually,resulting in low efficiency and accuracy.Nowadays,analyzing key data such as temperature and natural gas intake of kilns based on AI can help process experts optimize the process of kilns with higher energy consumption,reducing unit gas consumption by 3.8%and achieving greener production.
