Wu Zuyu, founder and chairman of Hithium, the Chinese energy storage technology company, was invited to meet with the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a high-level business forum in Beijing, underscoring deepening collaboration between Beijing and London on clean energy investment and technology.

The meeting, held on January 30 alongside a China-UK Business Council gathering attended by more than 110 representatives from both countries, provided an opportunity for the UK prime minister and Wu to exchange views on energy storage cooperation and the broader prospects for bilateral industrial engagement.

This invitation came amid the closing ceremony of the China-UK Business Council meeting, which was jointly attended by Premier Li Qiang of China’s State Council and Prime Minister Starmer, reflecting a mutual interest in strengthening commercial and strategic ties.

As a leading corporate representative in the long-duration energy storage sector, Wu gained insights from speeches by senior officials on policy directions for clean energy development and cross-border cooperation.

The UK government highlighted Hithium’s planned investment of £200 million that is expected to create approximately three hundred skilled jobs, enhance sovereign energy storage capacity and contribute to grid reliability and economic strength through advanced technologies.

Hithium’s engagement in the UK market builds on earlier agreements — including a major 720 megawatt-hour battery energy storage contract with UK renewable infrastructure developer Elements Green — illustrating the firm’s role in advancing the nation’s transition to net-zero emissions.

The meeting reflected both countries’ recognition of energy storage as a pivotal technology for future energy systems and demonstrated an appetite for continued public-private partnerships to accelerate innovation, economic growth and clean energy deployment in a rapidly evolving global landscape.