As Battery energy storage (BES) investment scales toward US$5 trillion, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) is positioning Hong Kong as Asia’s launchpad for materials, integration, green finance and recycling — a bridge Southeast Asian founders can use to finance, certify and scale.
A battery used to be something most people thought about only when a phone ran flat or a car wouldn’t start. That is no longer the case. BES is becoming part of the infrastructure that makes power grids more resilient, keeps renewable electricity available regardless of the weather, keeps electric vehicles moving and keeps increasingly power-hungry data centres running. Market projections cited by HKSTP indicate that investment in the battery and energy storage sector will reach US$5 trillion over the next decade.
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Look closely at this trillion-dollar industry and it is clear the global battery race has moved far beyond simply manufacturing cells. A complete BES ecosystem runs across four interconnected stages. It begins upstream with advanced materials research. It moves midstream into system integration and smart power electronics that bring the technology into community applications. It relies on international green finance to de-risk and fund project rollouts. And it ends downstream with the safe discharge, second-life reuse and recycling of spent batteries, which closes the sustainability loop.
In its latest BES Strategic Analysis Report, HKSTP describes Hong Kong as Asia’s leading hub with a complete, four-stage value chainand why that matters for the region.
Beyond the battery cell
At the upstream end of the chain, chemistry comes first. Research is advancing in solid-state batteries, water-based flow batteries and carbon-nanotube current collectors. Sodium-ion and other next-generation technologies are also being explored to improve cost, energy density, safety and durability.
Hong Kong’s universities give the city a solid foundation in this field. Luquos Energy is one example already in commercial use. The HKSTP company is developing a water-based sulphur flow battery, and its system has been deployed with EV-charging infrastructure on the Chinese mainland, where it has cut users’ electricity costs by close to 70 percent.
A storage system has to work with charging equipment, buildings or the electricity grid. Software has to decide when batteries should charge or discharge. Battery-management systems monitor safety and performance, while distributed-energy platforms coordinate different sources of electricity and storage.
This brings us to the second stage: integration and intelligence. Applications already range from mobile battery generators on construction sites to fast EV charging. In other words, some of the most valuable work may happen around the battery rather than inside it.
Where finance enters the chain
Large-scale energy-storage installations require substantial upfront capital. Returns can stretch over many years, and revenues may depend on electricity tariffs, grid services and how often a battery is used. That makes finance part of the proposition.
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The Hong Kong Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance covers activities including battery manufacturing and recycling, while energy storage supports greater use of renewable electricity. The framework can give banks and investors a clearer basis for assessing whether BES projects qualify for green and sustainable financing.
Building on this momentum, HKSTP recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a “Green Accelerator” to inject capital into high-potential solutions and help startups cross the commercialisation “valley of death”.
This combination of green finance, research and international compliance has already drawn global attention. Three of the world’s leading battery and energy storage companies, BYD, CATL and Gotion, have established a presence in the HKSTP ecosystem. Their arrival signals that Hong Kong’s role is not to compete in mass manufacturing, but to serve as a global launchpad and a bridge across every stage of the BES value chain. For Southeast Asian founders, the relevant question is whether that bridge can be used for financing, compliance and market entry — not just for visibility.
What happens when batteries retire
Every battery eventually reaches the end of its first life. For Hong Kong, that is becoming less theoretical. The Environmental Protection Department estimates that retired EV batteries will rise from around 1,300 tonnes in 2026 to approximately 6,700 tonnes by 2030.
Hong Kong’s first large-scale EV-battery recycling facility, at EcoPark, is intended to turn retired batteries into recycled black mass. The government has also been working on a producer-responsibility scheme.
Some batteries still have useful capacity after they are no longer suitable for vehicles. They can be repurposed for stationary storage, giving them a second life before their materials are recovered. The BES report also identifies second-life applications and technology for safely discharging retired batteries as opportunities at the final stage of the chain.
Recycling can then feed materials back to the start of the cycle. That reduces reliance on virgin resources and creates incentives to design batteries with recovery in mind. A value chain that looks linear can become increasingly circular.
An Vibrant ecosystem around the technology
Battery storage is only one part of HKSTP’s green-tech ecosystem activity. More than 250 green-tech companies are now in its ecosystem. GreenTech Hub, launched in 2025, facilitated more than 360 business-matching sessions, and organised more than 100 green-tech events in its first year, while its public-private partner network grew to 20 organisations.
Several companies in the HKSTP ecosystem have also produced technologies that HKSTP describes as world-first or Hong Kong-first applications.
One Energy has developed a battery-swapping system that incorporates what HKSTP describes as the world’s first water-cooled fast-charging system, and has taken its electric-mobility business into Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa. Halo Energy, meanwhile, has partnered with XPeng to launch Hong Kong’s first megawatt-level ultra-fast charging station.
The technologies differ, but their commercial needs often overlap. The journey starts with talent driving breakthroughs at the research stage. It moves on to validating solutions in real-world settings, then to using financial capital and listing mechanisms to scale, and finally to connecting with international investors to go global. That path to commercialisation is notoriously difficult, and Hong Kong is positioning itself to support green-tech ventures at every turning point.
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For Southeast Asian founders and investors, Hong Kong’s advantage is clear: green finance and bankability support, midstream integration and software expertise, and emerging second-life and recycling capacity. Hong Kong is not competing on mass manufacturing — it is building the research, finance, compliance and connectivity layer that regional BES projects need.
With HKSTP’s ecosystem, GreenTech Hub and international partner network, that support is already accessible. For Southeast Asian founders, the opportunity is straightforward: use Hong Kong as the launchpad to finance, certify and scale the next battery storage project in their own market.
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