VoA, Kamanggih – A family farmer eat some corn outside their hut under a dim lamp light, while the female family member is weaving and the youth are playing with their celullar phones.

Up to two years ago, majority of people at Kamanggih village, Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara is completely beyond the reach of electricity gri. Now, 300 homes have access to a 24 hour electricity produced by micro hydroelectric generator locatd at the nearby river.

“We have been using the river water throughout our lives, however we are not aware that it is capable of generating electricity,” uttered Adriana Lawa Djati.

Sumba generates electricity using solar power, wind power, river stream, and even pig manures with the purpose of utilizing 100 percent of renewable energy by 2025.

The ambitious project, known as “Iconic Island,” was initiated by a Dutch organization, Hivos, and now is part of the government’s national strategy to intensify the renewable resources in energy utilization in the next 10 years.

In an impoverished island where majority of the inhabitants are farmers and fishermen such as in Sumba, access toward electricity have made a significant difference on people like Adriana.

“Since we use electricity, plenty of things have changed. Children may learn appropriately, I can make a basket and weave a carpet in a longer period, and sell more goods in the market,” she uttered.

Although only 30% of Sumba population which reach a total of 650,000 which have enjoyed electricity, more than 50% of the electricity use by the island inhabitants come from renewable resources, according to government’s data.

Hivos Field Coordinator for Sumba, Adrianus Lagur, said that the NGO expects that the project can be replicated by other islands in the same province of East Nusa Tenggara.

“The idea is by not giving them the donation, we support the infrastructure development of green energy, but it entirely depends on the community to manage these resources and keep running them,” uttered Adrianus.

Energy crisis

Eventhough Indonesia has the largest economy in Southeast Asia, the territory is among the worst in terms of access to electricity. To compensate for the growth, the government plans to increase the capacity of the electricity as much as 60 Gigawatt within the 10 year period up to 2022. Twenty percent of such amount will come from renewable sources.

“Indonesia has been an oil importer for years, and our oil reserve is limited, hence renewable energy is a vital part of our energy security,” uttered Mochamad Sofyan, the Director of Renewable Energy at PT. PLN (Persero).

Significant amount of subsidy on electricity and fuel have been a serious burden to state budget and undermining the economy for years.

However small scale infrastructure, such mini hydroelectric genrator – or known locally as PLTA mikrohidro – and small wind turbines distributing electricity to Sumba are not enough to cover the disparity of national energy, even if they are constructed all over the islands in Indonesia.

Massive projects for hydropower electricity and geothermal using renewable energy extracted from the centers of geothermal, are required to cope with the problem in this country, uttered Sofyan.

“Indonesia holds a huge hydropower potential for the rainy season lasts for six months in majority of the territory, hence it will be part of the solution for energy deficiency,” uttered Sofyan.

Pig manures power

Sofyan said there are some concerns that the target of Sumba to acquire 100 percent electricity from renewable energy are unrealistic.

“In the long run, we see that Sumba remains dependance on solar powered generator,” he said.

Hivos admits that the its target is ambitious, by saying that it is more “inspirational and political” rather than technical, however the NGO is convinced that the target is attainable in the long run.

However, people in Sumba have gained the benefit of readily available green energy resources, which enable the reduction on financial liability for many people due to the reduction in firewood and gasoline costs.

Elisabeth Hadi Rendi (60), from the city of Waingapu, have been a pig breeder since 1975, however only the last two years when Hivos paid a visit to her home has she realized the power of pig manures.

Everyday Elisabeth collects manures from her pig shed and process them into a methane gas.

The use of such gas has saved household expenditures as much as Rp 6 millions within the two year period, a significant amount for a Sumba family.

“We also produce fertilizers from the manures for application in our vegetable plantation,” she uttered. “We eat the vegetables and feed some of the vegetables to the pigs, too which then later produce the biogas. Hence it is truly a revolving energy.” (AFP/Angela Dewan)