The island of Sumba in eastern Indonesia is culturally distinct from the rest of the country, with unique burial traditions, animist religions and its own unique language. But it shares many of the same problems as other isolated regions. Poverty, high infant mortality and diseases like malaria common.
Access to power for the 650,000 islanders is a huge problem. Nearly half have no access to electricity and use kerosene and wood fires for lighting and cooking. It's expensive, unsafe and unhealthy.
Meanwhile, the island has an abundance of renewable energy, with plentiful solar and biomass resources, and significant potential for hydropower and wind. To harness this green energy for Sumba, the Dutch NGO Hevos began working with the government. They set an ambitious goal to extend electricity to the vast majority of Sumba's population using 100% renewable energy.
This initiative, to turn Sumba into an iconic island of clean energy, has since attracted additional support from other development partners, the private sector and most recently the ADB. Progress has already been made in rolling out renewable energy. The village of Wipatando benefits from a government-sponsored small-scale solar project.
It brings power to 36 houses for a small monthly fee, much lower than the household kerosene bill. For village headman Lede Dwaga, having electricity at home has changed his life. And for the rest of the village, it means the chance to work and study after dark, and access to things like television for the first time. ADB joined the initiative in 2013 with a technical assistance grant worth $1 million.
It's aimed at scaling up renewable energy access in Sumba and in other areas of eastern Indonesia. This was later increased to $2 million with a grant from the government of Norway. ADB's involvement can help leverage this model across other geographies within Indonesia and outside of Indonesia by supporting the overall... development of the program and the subsequent implementation that can provide a model that can be replicated elsewhere.
This ambitious energy experiment on Sumba is important. If it's a success on the island, it could enable Indonesia to widen cost-effective energy access across many other poor, isolated communities.