On December 4, the 14th China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition National Finals (focused on new energy, new energy vehicles, and energy conservation & environmental protection) concluded successfully in Hunan Xiangjiang New Area. Hunan Changchu Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Hunan Changchu") made a strong breakthrough with its core technological achievement — the "High-Safety & Low-Cost Iron-Sulfur Flow Battery", standing out from 169 outstanding industry enterprises across the country and successfully winning the "Outstanding Enterprise" honor. This accolade is not only a national authoritative endorsement of Hunan Changchu’s cutting-edge technological innovation capabilities, but also highlights ZH Energy forward-looking layout and technological leadership in the long-duration energy storage track, earning heavy praise for Wangcheng District and Hunan Province on the national green innovation stage.

As a national benchmark innovation and entrepreneurship competition co-hosted by the Torch High Technology Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Hunan Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition has been rooted in Hunan for 12 consecutive years. It has leveraged over 37 billion RMB in investment and financing and incubated more than 10,000 technology-based enterprises, serving as a core engine for China's green technological innovation and industrial upgrading. This year's competition focused on strategic emerging industries such as new energy and energy conservation & environmental protection, gathering leading industry players nationwide to compete and showcase top achievements in the green and low-carbon field. Hunan Changchu's outstanding performance confirms the application potential of iron-sulfur flow battery technology and further highlights ZH Energy strong strength in driving green energy development through technological innovation.

The core technology competing in this event — the iron-sulfur flow battery — is a key achievement of ZH Energy core technology system in regional implementation. It addresses the industry pain points of traditional flow batteries, namely "high cost and limited scenario adaptation", with the following three core advantages:

• High Safety: It uses an alkaline aqueous electrolyte, fundamentally eliminating the risk of combustion and explosion; it operates stably in extreme environments, and no additional temperature control system is required in high-temperature scenarios. It perfectly meets the application needs of full scenarios such as new energy power stations, industrial and commercial energy storage, and microgrids, solving the core problem of "balancing safety and cost" in the energy storage industry.

• Extreme Cost-Effectiveness: The electrolyte is based on mass-produced chemical raw materials such as sulfur and iron, with a cost only 1/10 that of vanadium electrolyte; the system's full-life cycle levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is as low as half that of lithium batteries.

• Industry Leadership: It is the world's first to realize engineering application; the world's first verification project co-built with State Grid has been put into stable operation; the iron-sulfur flow battery system jointly developed with Huaneng Clean Energy Research Institute is about to be deployed.

State Grid Iron-Sulfur Project

Huaneng Clean Energy Research Institute Iron-Sulfur Project

As the core carrier of ZH Energy long-duration energy storage track, Hunan Changchu relies on founder Dr. Xie Wei's more than 10 years of industrialization experience in the United States, and fully proves its industry competitiveness with strong manufacturing strength and project delivery performance.

• Domestic Benchmark Deployment: It has successfully delivered multiple key projects of all-vanadium and iron-sulfur batteries. This year, it has successively completed the deployment of the world's first iron-sulfur battery projects on the grid side (State Grid project) and power source side (Huaneng project).

• Overseas Bulk Delivery: Relying on ZH Energy layout, the European megawatt-level photovoltaic-storage flow battery project has been delivered; projects such as backup power supplies for U.S. data centers and scenario-adapted projects in India are being promoted simultaneously.

Delivery of European Energy Storage Project

• Strong Production Capacity Support: It currently has a 100MW-class production line (with a self-research rate of core components exceeding 80%); a 500MWh intelligent production line will be put into operation in 2026 (with an annual delivery capacity of 300-500MWh), which can meet bulk fulfillment needs across multiple scenarios at home and abroad.

This award is a national authoritative recognition, and more importantly, a double verification of its manufacturing strength and ZH Energy"core independence + regional implementation" strategy. In the future, Hunan Changchu will continue to deepen the technological iteration and production capacity construction of iron-sulfur flow batteries, and promote the national energy storage industry highland with more competitive energy storage solutions, contributing solid strength to the national energy transition and the "Dual Carbon" goals.