이 기사는 2022년 01월 04일 08시04분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

H2 Inc, a flow battery developer backed by South Korea’s conglomerate Hanwha Group, has begun construction of a 20 MWh vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) energy storage project in the US, a move that is likely to pave the way for expansion into the world’s largest flow battery market.

The demonstration project, which will be completed at the end of 2023, is expected to the largest VRFB ever in the country. The system will also be the world’s biggest modular VRFB project using 100% pre-built VRFB modules designed and manufactured by H2, the company said.

Currently, the largest such installations in the US are the 8 MWh system deployed by Japan’s Sumitomo Electric Industries in San Diego and another of similar size in Washington State.

Energy storage systems, which store surplus energy and release it when needed to help meet demand, are crucial for the mass adoption of wind and solar power technologies since the amount of energy generated by these renewable sources fluctuates depending on the natural variability.

Lithium-ion batteries are commonly used for energy storage but they can go into thermal runaway and potentially cause fires. In contrast, VRFB technology, which uses an aqueous electrolyte, is less susceptible to such issues, with 10 times longer life than lithium-ion batteries at one-third the price.

The US is one of the countries that have actively embraced flow battery systems, with states such as California and New York focusing on long duration energy storage solutions in the past year. McKinsey & Company forecast long duration energy storage to deploy 85 to 140 TWh of energy capacity by 2040.

H2 is the first South Korean company to commercialize flow battery technology. If the pilot project is successful, the company could gain the upper hand in the US flow battery market.

“The California project will help to put us in an advantageous position over competitors in the US, which has been difficult to enter for foreign companies due to its policy that prefers domestic firms,” an official at H2 said.

H2 is backed by Hanwha Solutions, the solar power business of Hanwha Group. The South Korean clean energy company – led by Kim Dong-kwan, the eldest son of the group’s chairman Kim Seung-youn – invested in H2 in 2019, with its stake in the startup being around 19.7% at the end of 2020.

“Hanwha Group has continued to explore expansion into the US renewable energy market and its investment in H2 was also in line with that,” said an industry insider. “They may collaborate with each other in the future to expand across the US.” (Reporting by Kyung-ju Lee)