New Shiny Star of Energy Storage Application Taiwan APh ePOWER strategically unfolds in Carbon Economy Era_Interview with Sean Su, Director of Corp. Development of Aph ePOWER

In the field of energy storage, the input of chemical cells is inevitable, such as the lead-acid battery, and the series of lithium batteries that process the advantages of not being limited to the geographical environment, autonomy, high mobility, and easy mass production. Among them, lead-acid battery is not suitable for large-scale energy storage, so other chemical batteries must be used, e.g. lithium battery, flow battery, or others. Energy storage equipment is primarily composed of chemical cells, while the series of lithium batteries may be composed of many rare metals, including lithium minerals, cobalt ore, etc. Under the premise that Taiwan has scarce mineral resources and lacks lithium and cobalt, Taiwan must develop a new battery technology without relying on imported rare metals. Thus, "aluminum”, which is an abundant and inexpensive metal, has brought a new development opportunity.

Sean Su, Director of Corp. Development of Aph ePOWER

Interview/ Xin-En Wu　Written/ Ru-Wei Chen

　　Founded in 2018, Aph ePower Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Aph ePOWER" ) is the first company in the world that has developed commercial aluminum batteries. In addition to the development of various cutting-edge energy storage technologies, Aph ePower also provides energy-related services such as green electricity trading and the carbon credit trading market. "Along the way, from the research and development of aluminum batteries to the expansion of the field to the green electricity trading and carbon market economy, it has undergone several beautiful collisions." Sean Su, director of Director of Corp. Development of Aph ePOWER, spoke eloquently.

　　Speaking of the commencement of APh ePower, Su indicates that in 2014, the government noticed the necessity to carry out energy transformation and then initiated the "Five Plus Two Industry Innovation Plan". The policies for Green Energy Technology Industry have focused on energy transformation, including energy-saving, energy innovation, energy storage, smart system integration, etc., all of which are closely related to the development of the Renewable Energy Industry.

　　"In the field of energy storage, the input of chemical cells is inevitable, such as the lead-acid battery, and the series of lithium batteries that process the advantages of not being limited to the geographical environment, autonomy, high mobility, and easy mass production. Among them, leadacid battery is not suitable for large-scale energy storage, so other chemical batteries must be used, e.g. lithium battery, flow battery, or others. Energy storage equipment is primarily composed of chemical cells, while the series of lithium batteries may be composed of many rare metals, including lithium minerals, cobalt ore, etc. Under the premise that Taiwan has scarce mineral resources and lacks lithium and cobalt, Taiwan must develop a new battery technology without relying on imported rare metals. Thus, "aluminum", which is an abundant and inexpensive metal, has brought a new development opportunity," explained Su.

　　In 2015, the aluminum battery technology team in the Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories of ITRI, together with Stanford University, declared the research findings of the first-generation aluminum cells, which were successfully published in the journal "Nature" and then became world-renowned. Thus, the Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories of ITRI shot to fame.

　　The year 2018 happened to be the time when the competition for domestic electric motorcycles became fierce. In this competition, the key strategic resource was the "battery" provided to these transportation vehicles. For this reason, manufacturers had come to ITRI one after another to inquire about the progress of aluminum batteries. They hoped that aluminum batteries can feature the conditions such as quick charge, quick discharge, safe and environmentally friendly applications, and long-term service life. Through discussions and exchanges, Su also spotted the challenges in terms of aluminum battery development and said "ITRI is an R&D unit, not a factory, so it has no capacity to carry out the mass production of aluminum batteries."

　　This led to the establishment of APh ePower, the first startup of aluminum battery commercialization and operation in the world. It also obtained investments from enterprises such as SANYANG MOTOR, one of the domestic major scooter manufacturers in the same year it was founded. Situated at Luzhu Science Park of Southern Taiwan Science Park in Kaohsiung, the company has set up the first trial production line of aluminum batteries, which has begun running officially in 2019.

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