22 OCTOBER, Bangkok, Thailand – In Thailand, the drivers of the 21 million motorbikes – the main form of transportation in most cities and a leading cause of transport-related carbon dioxide emissions – now have a new role to play in the fight against climate change.
Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), the world's largest energy service company, today announced it will invest in SWAG EV, an emerging e-mobility player to drive the use of electric motorbikes while contributing to increasing power grid flexibility. This concept of convergence - the integration of electric mobility, battery storage, renewable energy generation and carbon finance - has the power to provide clean, reliable and affordable energy, and catalyse an energy transformation in Southeast Asia.
By using e-bikes with swappable batteries, most of which will be charged by solar power, they can drive the transformation to healthier cities while fighting climate change. 'Batteries on wheels' create an overlap between e-mobility, solar energy battery storage and a more flexible power grid. The e-bike batteries will increase the capacity of the power grid to incorporate a higher share of renewable energy in its energy mix and trigger decarbonization in Thailand. This concept is replicable across the world and this project will serve as the basis for implementation in India.
EESL is a pioneer in driving the concept of convergence in its key markets – India and Southeast Asia. As one of the world's largest public energy service companies, owned by the largest public sector enterprise in the Indian power sector, EESL has invested in SWAG EV, an emerging actor ushering in the two-wheeled e-mobility transformation in Southeast Asia.
EESL's initial US$5 million investment was conceptualized by SHIFT Asia, a carbon finance platform designed and operated by South Pole to mobilize climate finance for e-mobility. In addition to its investment, SHIFT Asia will co-fund the e-bike charging infrastructure in designated service areas and support EESL in financing shared batteries; all to make battery swapping and charging simple and convenient.
A major mid-term goal of the SHIFT platform is to use these batteries in their second life as a distributed renewable energy storage facility, providing the Thai energy grid with the flexibility to manage a higher share of variable renewable energy. They will be charged during the day with solar power (when electricity demand is low), and discharged during the evening power peak hours, when there is more demand than supply of electricity.
Charging stations located in factories with solar roofs will also be able to store and release surplus solar power. This system helps Thai utility companies increase the flexibility of the power grid, both in terms of managing variable renewable energy generation and reducing the load on the grid during peak hours.
Saurabh Kumar, Executive Vice Chairperson of EESL Group Companies: “As the power sector across the world deals with more renewable energy, and electric mobility takes off, it is essential that we, as key stakeholders, join forces and enable a clean, green, and electric future for better public health and quality of life – for ourselves and coming generations. EESL is driven by the objective of facilitating faster adoption of disruptive technology solutions, while balancing economic development and environmental sustainability."
Janson Chen, Executive Director, SWAG EV: “We are committed to catalysing e-mobility in SEA, which has the highest use of 2-wheelers per capita and a growing middle-income consumer segment. We are thrilled to have such a respected investor as EESL supporting our vision, and excited to scale it further, together with our partners and investors."
Ingo Puhl, co-founder and Managing Director Thailand, South Pole:“We are excited to be part of these pilot projects, which test the convergence concept of shared batteries, climate finance and renewable energy, and have the potential to transform transportation across Asia where motorcycles are widely used. It also has the possibility of massively reducing emissions as a valuable side-effect."
Mahua Acharya, Member of the Board of Directors at South Pole: “It has been wonderful to bring South Pole, EESL and SWAG together to develop energy concepts of the future, and I am so pleased to see South Pole and EESL take on such a leadership role in driving the renewable energy transformation across South and Southeast Asia."
Going forward, SWAG will implement a number of pilot projects with its partners to test the use and acceptance of shared batteries as a service model, and integrate its operation with the digital data reporting and management systems that are required to originate and monetize carbon credits via the SHIFT Platform.
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Note to editors
More information on SHIFT Asia: www.southpole.com/en/sustainability-solutions/shift-asia-platform
Media contact
Isabel Hagbrink, Director of Global Communications, South Pole. Email: i.hagbrink@southpole.com
About EESL: Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), under the administration of the Ministry of Power, Government of India, is working towards mainstreaming energy efficiency and is implementing the world's largest energy efficiency portfolio in the country. Driven by the mission of Enabling More – more transparency, more transformation, and more innovation – EESL aims to create market access for efficient and future-ready transformative solutions that create a win-win situation for every stakeholder. EESL has pioneered innovative business approaches to successfully roll-out large-scale programs that allow for incentive alignment across the value chain and rapidly drive transformative impact. EESL aims to leverage this implementation experience and explore new overseas market opportunities for diversification of its portfolio. EESL has operations in the UK, South Asia and South-East Asia. For more information, visit: https://www.eeslindia.org/
About SWAG: SWAG Electric Vehicle (SWAG EV) is a leading next generation electric vehicles company in Southeast Asia, with the goal for EVs to become the standard rather than the exception when it comes to urban mobility. SWAG's mission is to build innovative and benchmark setting electric vehicles that are designed around the urban lifestyles of our riders. We are always in motion, when it comes to all aspects of the SWAG brand. For more information, visit https://swagev.com.
About South Pole: South Pole is a leading project developer and provider of global climate action services, with over 350 experts in 17 global offices. South Pole helps companies, capital markets, and the public sector reduce their impact on the climate while mitigating risk and creating value. South Pole is a science-based company and its expertise covers project finance, data collection, and climate risk analysis, as well as the development of environmental commodities, such as carbon and renewable energy credits. South Pole has mobilised climate finance to over 700 projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in areas such as renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable land use. For more information, visit www.southpole.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
