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Asia-Pacific’s climate push keeps running into the same hard barriers. Office towers and hotels cool themselves with ageing HVAC units. Tin-roof homes in low-income districts soak up dangerous heat. Old power lines fail to reach every village, scooter riders hunt for a place to “refuel” their batteries, and farmers still burn diesel to chill their produce.
Each shortfall carries a hidden bill in carbon, cash and public health. Scale that across the region’s fast-growing economies, and the impact balloons. A new wave of APAC startups is closing those gaps with practical, often home-grown tech. Think AI sensors that fine-tune hotel air-conditioning, recycled roofing panels that keep slum interiors cooler, solar “mesh-grids” that link rural homes, and battery-swap kiosks that turn charging into a two-minute stop.
Buildings account for roughly 37% of global energy-related CO₂ emissions when both operations and construction materials are included. Much of that real estate runs on outdated heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment, with poor controls that waste electricity and push emissions higher. As air-conditioning demand surges across tropical megacities, grids are feeling the strain.
Retrofitting with smart energy management can turn that problem around. Singapore-based SensorFlow installs wireless sensors and AI software that automate HVAC settings, mainly in hotels and commercial buildings. The platform detects occupancy in real time and fine-tunes cooling, cutting HVAC energy use by up to 30% (about 15% of a hotel’s total energy bill).
Since 2016 SensorFlow has equipped over 10,000 hotel rooms across seven Southeast Asian markets (figure reported in 2020). Brands such as Accor and Hyatt have signed on, drawn by lower utility bills and better guest comfort. An US$8.3 million Series A+ round is now funding expansion into Europe and the United States.
Easy-to-install IoT devices and clear returns on investment make SensorFlow an attractive retrofit option. By shrinking peak electricity demand, the technology reduces coal dependence, easing pressure on grids and helping cities curb carbon. Smart sensors, AI and a pay-as-you-save model combine to deliver tangible energy savings while boosting climate and business resilience across Asia.
Asian megacities are heating up fast. Dense concrete blocks and scarce green space trap warmth, turning neighbourhoods into “heat islands.” Heatwaves now arrive more often, raising health risks and driving a spike in air-conditioning demand. Yet many cities still lack basic cooling infrastructure such as reflective roofs, shade canopies or tree cover.
In Ahmedabad, social enterprise ReMaterials tackles the problem from the rooftop. Its ModRoof system swaps out the tin and asbestos sheets common in low-income housing for interlocking panels made from recycled agricultural and packaging waste. The result is an affordable, durable and waterproof roof that keeps interiors noticeably cooler.
Field trials report indoor temperatures 6 °C to 10 °C lower than comparable tin-roof homes, a life-saving difference when outside highs reach 45 °C. Upcycling waste into a useful building material also avoids the emissions that would come from burning or landfilling that waste.
By 2021 ReMaterials had installed around 500 ModRoofs in low-income communities. Families report immediate relief, including improvements in heat-related breathing issues. Backed by social-impact investors, ReMaterials is ramping up production; Panels cost roughly one-quarter to one-sixth the price of a concrete roof. Panels are lightweight and designed for rapid installation, often completed within a day for small homes.
As Delhi, Karachi and Bangkok brace for longer, hotter summers, widespread access to passive cooling is critical. ModRoof gives low-income communities a way to build resilience without relying solely on energy-hungry air conditioners. By cutting heat stress and easing demand on overworked power grids, innovations like this help Asian cities adapt to climate change while curbing future emissions.
Across much of Asia, power grids built decades ago are struggling to keep up with modern demands. Aging transmission lines leak energy, blackouts are common, and grids find it hard to absorb intermittent solar and wind.
Meanwhile, millions of people in remote areas still live without reliable electricity. Running new lines to every village is slow and expensive, so fresh ideas are needed to leapfrog the old model.
Sydney-founded Okra Solar takes a different tack. The company supplies each household with a solar panel, a battery and a small IoT controller. These controllers link neighboring homes into a “mesh-grid,” allowing them to share power automatically.
If one house tops up its battery at midday, spare energy can flow to a neighbor pumping water or charging a phone. Cloud software tracks usage, handles energy trading and even flags maintenance needs before problems arise.
Okra’s plug-and-play kits have already electrified villages in the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam, replacing diesel generators with round-the-clock solar power. The economics are compelling: avoiding long grid extensions keeps costs low for governments and aid agencies. Okra closed a US$12 million Series A in September 2023, giving it new capital to scale.
Asia’s growth story depends on clean, reliable electricity reaching every community. Okra’s mesh-grids show that decentralised renewables can fill that gap quickly and at a fraction of traditional costs. As similar models scale across the region, they will lessen the need for new coal plants, cut emissions and prove that smart microgrids can be a cornerstone of Asia’s future energy system.
Asia’s transport future is electric, yet many cities still lack the charging backbone to make that shift easy. Public chargers are sparse, highways have few fast-charge stops, and riders of two- and three-wheelers worry about long downtimes.
Jakarta-based Swap Energi tackles this head-on. The company sells its own electric motorbikes and supports them with a growing network of battery-swap stations across Greater Jakarta. When a battery runs low, riders roll into a Swap Station, pop out the pack and slide in a fresh one within seconds.
The model is aimed at delivery couriers and ride-hailing drivers who cover long distances daily. For about Rp 25,000 (US$1.50) a day, users get unlimited swaps, cutting fuel costs by roughly 40% and enabling up to 150 kilometres of travel. Swap now operates more than 700 battery-swap stations across Indonesia, many co-located with Alfamart, Shell and BP outlets.
Swap Energi delivered more than 7,000 e-motorbikes during Q3 2024, when a Rp 7 million subsidy was in place. In early 2024, the startup raised US$22 million in Series A funding led by Qiming Venture Partners to accelerate rollout
With more than 120 million motorbikes on Indonesian roads, battery swapping that takes seconds instead of hours could be pivotal for cutting petrol use, CO₂ and urban smog. Swap Energi’s model shows how purpose-built infrastructure can speed the region’s shift to clean two-wheeled mobility.
Rising incomes and hotter weather are fuelling a surge in cooling needs across Asia, from air-conditioned apartments to cold rooms for food and vaccines. Traditional air conditioners and fridges, however, swallow electricity and rely on refrigerants that pack a heavy climate punch. Without smarter solutions, IEA baseline scenarios show global, and largely Asian, electricity use for cooling more than tripling by 2050.
Pune-based Ecozen tackles the challenge at the farm gate. Its flagship product, Ecofrost, is a portable cold room powered by rooftop solar panels and a patented thermal storage system that keeps produce chilled for more than 30 hours without grid electricity. Farmers and food suppliers can store fruits, vegetables or dairy on-site, avoiding diesel generators and frequent power cuts common in rural India.
By late 2023 Ecozen reported about 900 Ecofrost units in operation. The company says its solutions have benefited over 180 000 farmers, cut 2 million tonnes of CO₂e and prevented 50 000 t of food loss. The company also builds solar-driven irrigation controllers and refrigerated trucks, extending clean-energy cold chains from field to market. A US$30 million round in April 2024 (debt and equity) is backing expansion into Southeast Asia and Africa.
Cooling is essential for health, food security and economic productivity, yet conventional systems threaten to lock in massive emissions. Ecozen’s approach shows how decentralised, renewably powered infrastructure can meet soaring demand without over-taxing grids or the climate. Widespread adoption of such technologies would let Asia triple access to cooling without tripling carbon, creating a virtuous cycle of resilience and lower emissions.