Off-grid Renewable Energy Program for Sustainable Rural Electrification in Indonesia
Keywords:
off-grid system, renewable energy utilization, sustainable rural electrification, ocal community participation, community empowermentAbstract
There are many rural areas in Indonesia without electricity, especially in remote islands. It is challenging to provide electricity to remote areas through the electrical grid from existing power plants. One of the solutions for rural electrification is providing diesel generators, but it has an issue with the fuel shortage and negative impact on the environment. To overcome the issue related to the lack of rural electrification and dependence on fossil fuel, the off-grid renewable energy system can be the appropriate solution. There is an enormous potential of renewable energy resources, such as solar energy, micro-hydro, and wind energy. These resources are available as local energy resources in remote areas and can be utilized for generating electricity. However, there is another issue related to the sustainability of rural electrification program. For example, many infrastructures that have been built for rural electrification are not able to operate for long term period. This paper analyses factors that hamper the implementation of sustainable rural electrification based on renewable energy and discusses how to involve local community participation to ensure a sustainable program. The application of rural electrification based on renewable energy not only just to provide the electricity and increase rural electrification rate, but it also needs to provide the program that can be used by the local community to support their productive activities.
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