Shenzhen ZH Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ZH Energy), dedicated to long-term energy storage technology, has recently completed a nearly 10 million seed round financing investment from Sequoia China Seed Fund.



ZH Energy Storage was founded by Dr. Xie Wei in 2021 and serves as the Chief Scientist. Founder Xie Wei studied materials in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees. In 2011, he obtained a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Dr. Xie Wei has held positions such as Senior Engineer at United Technologies and Chief R&D Scientist at Form Energy, a long-term energy storage company, for over a decade. He is responsible for the research and application of various long-term energy storage technologies. Among them, the all vanadium flow battery project he led won the US Annual 100 R&D Award in 2013.



In 2021, against the backdrop of the global introduction of carbon neutrality goals, the energy storage industry has exploded comprehensively, and energy storage projects with installed capacity of hundreds of megawatts continue to emerge around the world. In China, with the release of the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage" by the National Development and Reform Commission, provincial and municipal governments have successively introduced requirements for the allocation and storage of new energy installed capacity. The required storage time ranges from 2 hours to 4 hours. Compared with the 1 hour or no time requirement before 2021, national policies have begun to move towards medium to long-term energy storage.



McKinsey released the Global Long Term Energy Storage White Paper in 2021, which pointed out that the world is not moving forward on the path of controlling warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius as expected. To achieve the goals set by the Paris Agreement, humanity needs to reduce emissions to the greatest extent possible in all industries. The power industry, which accounts for one-third of global carbon emissions, will undoubtedly be the dominant force in this global carbon reduction campaign and needs to achieve net zero emissions by 2040. One of the most important aspects is the need to deploy a long-term energy storage system with a capacity of 85TWh-140TWh to ensure that the penetration rate of new energy generation reaches over 60%. This scale of long-term energy storage installation requires a total investment of 1.5-3 trillion US dollars. Based on the proportion of China's electricity generation in the world, it is estimated that the scale of China's long-term energy storage market will account for about one-third of the global long-term energy storage market in the future.



Against the backdrop of huge long-term energy storage demand, the Breakthrough Energy Fund founded by Bill Gates has invested in multiple parent energy storage technology companies in recent years, including Form Energy, ESS, Malta, Quidnet Energy, and others. Form Energy, established in 2017, completed its latest round of financing of $220 million last year, while ESS, a company that develops long-term liquid flow battery technology, successfully went public in the United States last year. Taking advantage of the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Breakthrough Energy Fund established the Global Long Term Energy Storage Council in 2021, dedicated to promoting the research, production, and application of long-term energy storage technologies worldwide. The board members include 23 companies that develop and produce long-term energy storage technology products, and ZH Energy Storage also conducted a recent lecture course to sort out and analyze the technologies of these 23 companies.



The "3060 dual carbon" target released by China has accelerated the increase in installed capacity of wind and solar power generation, and the demand for distribution and storage it brings has also made the energy storage market exceptionally hot. However, there are not many large-scale energy storage technologies in the current market that can fully meet the requirements of safety, low price, long-term, and flexible deployment. Kang Zhiwei, co-founder and CEO of ZH Energy Storage, believes that "although most electrochemical energy storage installations in the market currently use lithium-ion batteries, there are two factors that will limit their further large-scale applications: on the one hand, the safety hazards of lithium-ion batteries cannot be completely eradicated. This can be seen from the safety accidents that have occurred in several large lithium-ion energy storage facilities around the world in recent years, the larger the installation scale, the higher the probability of safety accidents; on the other hand, due to limited reserves and mining of lithium resources, as well as strong demand for power batteries, the price of lithium-ion batteries may not be able to maintain the expected downward trend in the future, which will make it impossible for their prices to bear in energy storage applications."



ZH Energy Storage was established in this context, focusing on the research and development, promotion, and application of electrochemical energy storage technology, with the aim of helping China achieve its carbon neutrality goal through the industrialization of long-term energy storage technology. The company will rely on Dr. Xie Wei's rich experience in long-term energy storage to continuously develop innovative technological routes, research and develop core materials and energy storage systems with independent intellectual property rights, achieve large-scale production of "long-term, low-cost, and safer" energy storage products, and strive to make the cost of long-term energy storage combined with wind and solar power lower than that of thermal power in the future, ultimately achieving the grand vision of clean energy replacing thermal power comprehensively.



Sequoia China has been laying out its new energy and energy storage industry for many years, and jointly established a carbon neutrality technology fund with Vision Technology Group last year, with a total scale of 10 billion yuan. Kang Zhiwei, CEO of ZH Energy Storage, stated that the cooperation with Sequoia China will open up a broader market for the company, accelerate its progress in technology forwarding, and promote the early launch of the company's products. To achieve the above objectives, this round of financing will mainly be used for the introduction of outstanding talents, pilot testing of patented products, and other work.



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Shenzhen ZH Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as ZH Energy), dedicated to long-term energy storage technology, has recently completed a nearly 10 million seed round financing investment from Sequoia China Seed Fund.



ZH Energy Storage was founded by Dr. Xie Wei in 2021 and serves as the Chief Scientist. Founder Xie Wei studied materials in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Tsinghua University for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees. In 2011, he obtained a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Dr. Xie Wei has held positions such as Senior Engineer at United Technologies and Chief R&D Scientist at Form Energy, a long-term energy storage company, for over a decade. He is responsible for the research and application of various long-term energy storage technologies. Among them, the all vanadium flow battery project he led won the US Annual 100 R&D Award in 2013.



In 2021, against the backdrop of the global introduction of carbon neutrality goals, the energy storage industry has exploded comprehensively, and energy storage projects with installed capacity of hundreds of megawatts continue to emerge around the world. In China, with the release of the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage" by the National Development and Reform Commission, provincial and municipal governments have successively introduced requirements for the allocation and storage of new energy installed capacity. The required storage time ranges from 2 hours to 4 hours. Compared with the 1 hour or no time requirement before 2021, national policies have begun to move towards medium to long-term energy storage.



McKinsey released the Global Long Term Energy Storage White Paper in 2021, which pointed out that the world is not moving forward on the path of controlling warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius as expected. To achieve the goals set by the Paris Agreement, humanity needs to reduce emissions to the greatest extent possible in all industries. The power industry, which accounts for one-third of global carbon emissions, will undoubtedly be the dominant force in this global carbon reduction campaign and needs to achieve net zero emissions by 2040. One of the most important aspects is the need to deploy a long-term energy storage system with a capacity of 85TWh-140TWh to ensure that the penetration rate of new energy generation reaches over 60%. This scale of long-term energy storage installation requires a total investment of 1.5-3 trillion US dollars. Based on the proportion of China's electricity generation in the world, it is estimated that the scale of China's long-term energy storage market will account for about one-third of the global long-term energy storage market in the future.



Against the backdrop of huge long-term energy storage demand, the Breakthrough Energy Fund founded by Bill Gates has invested in multiple parent energy storage technology companies in recent years, including Form Energy, ESS, Malta, Quidnet Energy, and others. Form Energy, established in 2017, completed its latest round of financing of $220 million last year, while ESS, a company that develops long-term liquid flow battery technology, successfully went public in the United States last year. Taking advantage of the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Breakthrough Energy Fund established the Global Long Term Energy Storage Council in 2021, dedicated to promoting the research, production, and application of long-term energy storage technologies worldwide. The board members include 23 companies that develop and produce long-term energy storage technology products, and ZH Energy Storage also conducted a recent lecture course to sort out and analyze the technologies of these 23 companies.



The "3060 dual carbon" target released by China has accelerated the increase in installed capacity of wind and solar power generation, and the demand for distribution and storage it brings has also made the energy storage market exceptionally hot. However, there are not many large-scale energy storage technologies in the current market that can fully meet the requirements of safety, low price, long-term, and flexible deployment. Kang Zhiwei, co-founder and CEO of ZH Energy Storage, believes that "although most electrochemical energy storage installations in the market currently use lithium-ion batteries, there are two factors that will limit their further large-scale applications: on the one hand, the safety hazards of lithium-ion batteries cannot be completely eradicated. This can be seen from the safety accidents that have occurred in several large lithium-ion energy storage facilities around the world in recent years, the larger the installation scale, the higher the probability of safety accidents; on the other hand, due to limited reserves and mining of lithium resources, as well as strong demand for power batteries, the price of lithium-ion batteries may not be able to maintain the expected downward trend in the future, which will make it impossible for their prices to bear in energy storage applications."



ZH Energy Storage was established in this context, focusing on the research and development, promotion, and application of electrochemical energy storage technology, with the aim of helping China achieve its carbon neutrality goal through the industrialization of long-term energy storage technology. The company will rely on Dr. Xie Wei's rich experience in long-term energy storage to continuously develop innovative technological routes, research and develop core materials and energy storage systems with independent intellectual property rights, achieve large-scale production of "long-term, low-cost, and safer" energy storage products, and strive to make the cost of long-term energy storage combined with wind and solar power lower than that of thermal power in the future, ultimately achieving the grand vision of clean energy replacing thermal power comprehensively.



Sequoia China has been laying out its new energy and energy storage industry for many years, and jointly established a carbon neutrality technology fund with Vision Technology Group last year, with a total scale of 10 billion yuan. Kang Zhiwei, CEO of ZH Energy Storage, stated that the cooperation with Sequoia China will open up a broader market for the company, accelerate its progress in technology forwarding, and promote the early launch of the company's products. To achieve the above objectives, this round of financing will mainly be used for the introduction of outstanding talents, pilot testing of patented products, and other work.



Related articles:

ZH Energy Storage invites talented individuals | 2022 Sequoia Joint Spring Recruitment&Intern Recruitment Launch

Analysis of the trillion dollar long-term energy storage market and technology