The IGEE, Korea’s largest PV, ESS, renewable energy trade show, ended after three days of productive activity. This year’s event was a meaningful place to highlight the present and future of the renewable energy sector. Over 300 exhibitors from 27 countries around the world participated in this exhibition to showcase their technology that helps drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Green Energy Expo was a recognized as a global marketplace for solar business people, which offered invaluable business opportunities, and proved as Korea’s largest PV trade show. In this year's show, eight of the world's top 10 solar cell and module manufacturing companies, including Hanwha Q cells, LONGi, JA Solar, Trina Solar, Yingli Solar, Suntech Power, AIKO Solar, etc exhibited. In the field of solar inverters, the top five companies based on 2017 market share including Huawei, Sungrow, SMA, ABB, and Sineng participated in this show along with Solis, GoodWe, Fronius, Refusol. In addition, the event was also marked by participation from the top solar power producing countries such as China, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Since the GEE served as a PV venue for companies to enter a new market and earn profit, the trade show became a launch pad for not only large companies such as Hyundai Green Energy, OCI power & KACO new Energy, and Shinsung E&G, but also SMEs to launch their new products and technology. Local companies such as Dasstech, Rezzler, Hepsiba, Dongyang E&P, Haezoom and others boasted their new products and technologies of Solar Inverter, Energy Storage, SmartGrid to compete against their global counterparts.
Served as a showcase for SMEs with technology and market competitiveness
Thirteen percent of the exhibitors were from the Daegu and Gyeongbuk region, including HN Solar, CS Tech, Seochang Electric Communication, Kyung Won Power, Tantan Structure Engineering, Taewoong Energy, Ajin Solartec, ID Information System, and Sinil E&C. The trade show also featured 100 booths for thirty companies from Daegu, a 20% increase from the last year. In addition, it was also marked by the presence of ten companies from the Gyeongbuk area, including Ebisu Industry, Keukdong Energy, and Sehan Solar exhibited in 20 booths.
These companies in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk region attracted visitors with their outstanding technology, market competitiveness, and innovative products. The visitors especially paid attention to several companies from Daegu such as Daesung Energy, which gave the overview of their renewable energy technology, Duksan Cotran, which made their first visit to the show to introduce their ESS cooling system and air compressor. In addition, companies from the Gyeongbuk area presented various renewable energy technology and products. For example, Hyuksin ENC showcased geothermal power products, Sandong Metal Industries promoted a small wind power generator, and JDH introduced a hydrogen heat exchanger.
Shin Jong-wu from Duksan Cotran said, “It is expected that sales of our thermo-hygrostat products will increase. Regulations related to the ESS system are expected to be tightened since fires occurred in an ESS system.” Jo Gyeong-yeon from HN Solar, the agency of SMA inverter, said, “I've never seen so many people visiting the show for the past five years. I was impressed that executives visited the show during the week” and expected for the continuous growth of the show.
There was an increase in the number of local companies exhibited in the show, and these companies successfully grabbed the attention of visitors with their latest technology. Seochang Electric Communication, developed based on its watt-hour meter, had exhibited in the show three years ago with the support from the Daegu Metropolitan City and the Nano Convergence Practical Application Center. This year, the company exhibited on its own and featured in four booths. Recently, sales are rapidly increasing. STX Heavy Industries, which introduced a solid fuel cell (SOFC) developed based on their own technology, exhibited with the support from the Daegu Metropolitan City and the Nano Convergence Practical Application Center.
Over 10.9% increase in visitors compared with the previous year and participated by local and overseas buyers with high purchasing power
The fair was visited by business people who were aimed to acquire next-generation technologies and innovative solutions in PV, energy storage, and smart grid areas in order to open up new markets. A total of 32,500 visitors came to the show for three days, which is a 10.9% growth from the last year. Particularly, more than 100 overseas buyers with real purchasing power have visited the show this year, proving that Green Energy Expo has become globally recognized and an important gateway to enter the Korean Solar and Energy Storage market. Especially, two-thousand people representing Korea’s electric energy industry who had previously visited the Electric Works Expo 2019, hosted by the Korea Electrical Contractors Association, visited on April 4, making the trade show an excellent place to visit.
To help Korean companies expand into the overseas markets and improve export competitiveness of SMEs, KOTRA and EXCO hosted Overseas Buyers Invitation and Export Consultation on the first day of the show, April 3. Over 100 overseas buyers from 27 countries including the US, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, India, and the Middle East with high buying power came to the export consultation. This is a 23% increase (81 companies in 2018) compared with the previous year.
Also, the fair offered 1:1 export consultation services between exhibitors and buyers, in which potential buyers walk into the exhibitors’ booth and practice the exhibitors’ products and technology, in order to help the buyers get hands-on experience and knowledge of the exhibitor’s products and technology. The 1:1 export consultation was viewed as a vital part for business people to assume a successful trade negotiation and subsequently, achieve their business goals (i.e making profit and opening new markets).
Salam Petroleum from Qatar, Vertex Solutions from India, and Mobilinfo from Morocco came to the show to find 500MW PV power generation project partner. A total of over 391 consultations related to the PV project was held at the show, and many companies are planning to have additional consultation or sign MOU with the overseas developers after the show, proving that the fair served as a platform for the exhibitors to grow sales and profit.
Served as a platform for sharing market policy and development direction of the International Green Energy Conference 2019
In this year's show, a variety of events including conferences, seminars, and technology training courses took place.
More than 60 global leaders across the PV and renewable energy sector from seven countries including Germany, China, Japan, Israel, and Malaysia were invited as special guests and spoke about the global market, policy and technology trends, highlighting the present and the future of the renewable energy industry.
With more than six-hundred attendees, the Green Energy Conference hosted sessions focusing on areas such as PV, hydrogen, fuel cell, secondary cell, and ESS. At the 2019 PVMI&GGEITC(Global Green Energy Innovation and Technology Collaboration), which is a PV conference, floating Solar and agricultural PV were discussed under the theme PV System-Talk about Tomorrow. Particularly, in this year, Hanwha Q Cell, SolarEdge technologies, Solar Farm, Paru, and Scotra shared their vision for advanced technology designed for each energy sector, drawing attention from the participants of the conference. Also, speakers from Fraunhofer, a global research group, Fukushima construction from Japan, and Korea Agricultural PV Association spoke about their case studies and took forward important discussions of their perspective on the related market.
In the meantime, with a hydrogen economy roadmap established by the Korean government, active discussions on the development of the latest technologies for hydrogen and fuel cells, the trends of international standards, and the distribution of hydrogen fueling stations took place at the 2019 Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Forum. Since safety of ESS has been further prioritized these days, the conference on securing the safety of alternative battery and the ESS was attended by more professionals and stakeholders than expected and ended in huge success.
The Innovation Program, held to promote new products and technology at the special stage on April 3 and 4, served as a platform for visitors to acquire knowledge and information on latest technology. This year, twelve companies (the figure increased three times from the last year) including Hanwha Q Cell, Shinsung E&G, Razzler, and Haezoom gave presentations in order to fulfil the growing needs of visitors specialized in the related areas. As such, the exhibition was considered to be an important platform for visitors to see and obtain detailed updates on these technologies.
Most of the exhibitors that participated in the exhibition said “The exhibition, organized in a large facility, was maintained in a very neat way”. “Also, it provided lots of things to see and opportunities to get in direct contact with potential buyers from overseas.” Many companies that presented in this year’s show promised to attend the next year’s event. Especially, an official of Hanwha Q Cell expressed satisfaction with the attendance of the event, saying, “So many visitors visited our booth and showed their interest in our company that we had to make additional printings for them.”
Kwon Young-jin, the Mayor of Daegu, said, “Many visitors came to the exhibition to create new opportunities in the face of RE 3020, Green Energy Expo paved the way for the participants to find new breakthroughs through exchange of information and ideas on innovative products and technology in Solar, Energy Storage, and Renewable Energy fields.” He also added, “The Green Energy Expo Korea plans to do its best to show the solar energy industry of the future and the latest technology trends to the professional visitors, and furthermore, continuously contribute to the profitability of exhibitors.” Many applications for the 2020 Green Energy Expo are already rolling in, showing that there are high expectations for the next year's event. The 17th Green Energy Expo will be held in Daegu EXCO from April 1 to 3, in 2020.
