HDT Energy, a solar solution provider in Brazil, has close ties with China throughout its corporate history. It leverages Huawei Digital Power's low-carbon products and solutions to help Brazil and Latin America advance the renewable energy industry.
HDT Energy is more than just the exclusive representative of Huawei Digital Power in Brazil; it is also a significant player in Huawei's Latin American network. With its status as a certified value-added partner (VAP), distributor, and a three-star Huawei service partner, HDT Energy is committed to providing local partners and customers with best-in-class photovoltaic (PV) solutions that combine performance, safety, and efficiency, covering a wide range of scenarios including utility-scale, commercial and industrial (C&I), and residential plants.
Iron-Triangle Joint Operations
HDT Energy was established by Leonardo Cyrino (as CEO), Roni Griner (as CFO), and Bruno Monteiro (as CSO). Roni Griner, the founder of HDT Group, which is the parent company of HDT Energy, established HDT in 2005 as an international trading company to source retail products from China to South America.
In 2015, Leonardo Cyrino co-founded GD Solar, the first and largest distributed power generation company in Brazil. GD Solar made investments in building Brazil's first distributed PV plant in remote self-consumption mode, with the rated peak power exceeding 200 MWp. After selling GD Solar in 2018, Leonard started exploring new business opportunities. Thanks to his extensive knowledge and strong network connections with investors, developers, and manufacturers in the solar PV ecosystem, Leonardo developed a business model perfect for the PV market in Brazil and founded HDT Energy with Roni. Bruno Monteiro previously served as the Digital Power Business Director for ABB, Brazil.
The skills of the three CXOs complement each other and play a crucial role in the success of HDT Energy. Leonardo understands the PV market, customer requirements, and business models. Bruno has extensive experience dealing with PV manufacturers like Huawei, and Roni has significant business relationships with Chinese manufacturers catering to the South American market.
HDT Energy was officially established in 2019 with the vision of "Energy of the future, today" and started collaborating with Huawei Digital Power to explore the PV market in Brazil and Latin America.
Providing Comprehensive Services Beyond Products
With a mature business environment and favorable sunlight conditions, Brazil is particularly suitable for solar energy development and has been actively promoting renewables. It is now one of the world's largest solar power producers.
In 1997, Brazil's National Energy Policy Act outlined an overall framework for promoting renewables and encouraged the development of clean energy, including solar energy. The introduction of the net metering system enables distributed PV power generators to transmit surplus power to a power grid to obtain a better ROI.
Brazil provides various financing options and tax benefits to encourage PV sector growth. These include reductions or exemptions on taxes, such as ICMS, PIS, and COFINS, for the sale of PV goods and services. Additionally, investors in distributed PV power systems and utility-scale PV plants can secure low-interest loans over periods exceeding 10 years.
To help customers benefit from these policies, while selling PV inverter products, HDT also provides additional services, including business evaluation, technical support, logistics services, tax management, investment, and financing.
According to Leonardo, HDT has a better understanding of the local situation in Brazil, including the business models and local cultures, and has strong relationships with local investors, distributors, and service providers. Therefore, HDT can help Huawei Digital Power achieve its business objectives in the local market while collaborating with local ecosystem partners in Brazil, including EPC companies, supply chain companies, and investment and financing institutions.
Huawei Digital Power's leadership and innovation in the distributed PV field, especially its high product reliability, provide the boost HDT needs to explore the local market.
Leonardo shared feedback from the largest inverter distributor in Brazil. The distributor collaborated with multiple vendors, but the quality of the inverters always led to issues that cost a lot of time and money. After collaborating with HDT and using Huawei products, the distributor had no after-sales issues for over a year. This achievement exceeded Leonardo's expectations.
Expanding from Utility-Scale to C&I and Residential Businesses
At its inception, HDT was committed to developing large-scale distributed PV power generation projects. Thanks to the partnerships with GD Solar, the collaboration projects between HDT and GD Solar have become local benchmarks for solutions and quality.
In the first three years of collaboration with Huawei (2019 to 2022), HDT built up a lead in the utility-scale plant market.
In 2023, Huawei decided to collaborate with HDT to explore the retail market in Brazil through run-rate channels, covering single-phase and small three-phase inverters in residential and C&I scenarios. The market at that time was flooded with low-cost and low-quality equipment, but showed significant development potential.
To support the development of new market segments, HDT actively collaborated with Huawei to develop local run-rate partners. Huawei's strong brand influence in the global market significantly contributes to the collaboration. For example, Bel Energy, a leading player in Brazil’s PV equipment distribution market, has formed a strong partnership with Huawei, known for its innovative PV solutions. Connectoway, which was previously Huawei's solution partner in the telecom industry, now collaborates with Huawei in the solar PV business. Previously, Bel Micro's primary business involved selling computer hardware and software. Collaboration with Huawei enabled Bel Micro to enter the energy field and provide solar PV products for customers.
After two years of collaboration with these distributors and service providers, Huawei's retail revenue in Brazil has increased fourfold, accompanied by a corresponding increase in market share.
HDT, which is a certified four-star service partner of Huawei Digital Power, provides scenario-specific and user experience-oriented products and services to its partners and customers. Additionally, it provides online and onsite training and certification for more than 400 employees per month. The Smart I-V Curve Diagnosis software helps customers remotely manage each inverter and improve energy yield efficiency through online analysis.
Currently, the collaboration between HDT and Huawei Digital Power has expanded from Brazil to Chile. In the Chilean market, the two parties will focus on developing PV plants with small distributed power generation units.
Creating Opportunities in the PV Market
While helping Huawei Digital Power increase its market share, HDT has achieved rapid growth. After just five years of its establishment, HDT has emerged as a prominent company in Brazil's digital power sector.
Leonardo said that the exclusive distribution collaboration mode between HDT and Huawei Digital Power has become a model in the local market. Both parties are committed to creating opportunities in the PV market, exploiting market potential, and expanding growth within the ecosystem through partnerships.
He said that Huawei's expertise and channel support provide significant and unique long-term benefits to the entire industry, helping cope with fierce market competition and embrace fast-growing market opportunities.
Today, in Latin America, Huawei Digital Power provides cutting-edge products and actively creates a conducive environment for industry partners and organizations to develop new industry standards. This collaborative approach promotes a healthy and sustainable energy ecosystem across the region.
