MUNICH, June 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- During Intersolar Europe 2026, Huawei Digital Power, together with global partners, held the inaugural 2026 PV & ESS Safety Industry Summit in Munich on June 24, 2026, focusing on the safety risks and insurance coverage mismatch in the large-scale development of PV+ESS under the global energy transition. The summit brought together authoritative experts, association leaders, and insurance representatives for in-depth dialogue on energy storage safety standards, fire emergency challenges, test procedure evolution, and insurance innovation, charting a new path to safe and reliable development.
PV+ESS Safety Calls for High-Quality Development
Xia Hesheng, Vice President of Huawei Digital Power and President of Huawei Digital Power Strategy & Marketing, emphasized that PV+ESS safety is not an option in the development of the new energy system-it is the necessity. It is not a single technological breakthrough, but an integration of multiple disciplines including electrochemistry, thermal management, power electronics, digital technology, and AI. Huawei has always adhered to a quality-first principle, investing long-term in PV+ESS safety technology innovation to ensure full-chain safety. Huawei will work with the industry to advance the deep integration of quantitative safety assessment and insurance mechanisms, driving high-quality development of the renewable energy industry.
Safety Breakthroughs from a Global Perspective
Gerrit Lührung, Head of System Infrastructure and BESS, Bundesverband Energiespeicher Systeme e. V. (BVES) said that in the face of the "curtailment crisis," energy storage has evolved from a commercial arbitrage tool to a core system asset. Currently, the total battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity in Germany stands at 19 GW, with growth driven by the utility, commercial, and industrial sectors. Over the next three years, the industry must overcome regulatory restrictions, comply with the new safety guidelines, and unlock system value.
Tom Hessels, Advisor of Energy and Transport Safety at the Netherlands Institute for Public Safety (NIPV), believes that battery fires are on the rise, with the core challenge being "information silos." He called for the release of UL 9540A test data (such as thermal runaway duration) and 24/7 manufacturer support channels to bridge the information gap between fire departments and manufacturers.
Mikel Arrese-Igor, Senior Energy Storage Engineer at DNV, said that around 70% of BESS defects occurred at the system level. Full-scale tests, such as the ones carried out in the Huawei LUNA2000 system, allow for safety philosophy and safety-by-design approach validation. Going forward, the industry will likely upgrade test standards to the "installation level", covering chain-fire scenarios involving other non-battery surrounding enclosures.
Bill Reaugh, Solar Executive and Principal Engineer at the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (VDE), said that the transformation of energy systems brings new risks. Safety must evolve from the component level to the ecosystem leveraging a Digital Trust Model. Safety and Security are full-lifecycle and closed-loop covering design, manufacturing, and operations.
Technical Excellence and Financial Empowerment
Zhu Jun, Product Director of Utility GFM ESS at Huawei Digital Power, pointed out that the industry faces four major challenges: thermal-runaway boundary breakdown, high-voltage insulation failure, grid disturbance, and a lack of digitalization. A full-lifecycle safety quantitative assessment framework must be established to upgrade the risk level from "Zone B risk mitigation" to "Zone C acceptable zone." Huawei has built a "passive protection + proactive warning" defense network through high-temperature-durable insulation, positive-pressure smoke exhaust, smart string dual-stage architecture, and AI-based early-warning technologies, ensuring that thermal runaway does not propagate in extreme scenarios.
Alastair Nicklin ACII, Senior Director of Business Development at Willis Natural Resources, WTW, advocated that the insurance industry shift to a "design as risk control" paradigm, quantifying "risk probability × loss severity" to build a three-dimensional closed-loop defense mechanism across physical, financial, and environmental dimensions. This encompasses extending fire separation distances to micro-environment containment, upgrading equipment repair to revenue-interruption hedging, and transitioning from standards compliance to above-standard resilience.
During the summit, the Grid-Forming ESS Safety White Paper was released, focusing on the quantitative assessment framework, attack-defense testing system, and digitalization pathways. It analyzed the logic of "promoting defense through offense, data-driven approaches, and closed-loop iteration," providing guidance for R&D, regulation, and construction, and driving the industry toward a unified safety paradigm.
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