New Delhi: Government-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has invested USD 5 million in SWAG EV, a Thailand-based electric bike company through SHIFT Asia, a carbon finance platform designed and operated by South Pole to mobilise climate finance for e-mobility. The investment is aimed at catalysing energy transformation in South-East Asia, an official statement said on Thursday.

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SWAG EV is an emerging e-mobility player to drive the use of electric motorbikes while contributing to increasing power grid flexibility. EESL's initial $5-million investment was conceptualised by SHIFT Asia, a carbon finance platform designed and operated by South Pole to mobilise 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, the statement said.

'Batteries on wheels'

"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 decarbonisation in Thailand. This concept is replicable across the world and will serve as the basis for implementation in India," the statement added.

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.

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