Renewable Energy Technology Acculturation in Indonesia: Lessons from Off-grid Pv and Hybrid Case Studies

This paper discusses the use of a qualitative assessment tool called the KPDAC (knowledge, persuasion, decision, adoption, confirmation) continuum to understand the process and outcomes of renewable energy technology (RET) acculturation in off-grid villages in Indonesia. The KPDAC continuum can also be used as a tool to design strategy for RET deployment looking at requirements for RET acculturation and how it can be facilitated. The acculturation of RET is used here to describe the process and outcomes of RET deployment in a community, including the extent to which RET acculturates or diffuses into, and becomes part of, the community’s ongoing activities. This paper presents assessments of three off-grid photovoltaic (PV) deployment case studies from Lampung, West Java and Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT, Eastern Indonesia) provinces, using the KPDAC continuum. The assessments indicated that the communities were at different starting points in the KPDAC continuum for RET and required different approaches for RET acculturation to be successful. Facilitators need to understand how acculturation challenges vary with KPDAC continuum starting point and adopt an appropriate approach if RET acculturation is to be successful. Lessons from these project assessments have been used to design a long-term approach to building capacity for RET deployment through educational institutions, undertaken as part of a recently completed Australian Development Research Award (ADRA) research project that was undertaken as a collaborative Australian-Indonesian project. The purpose of capacity building is to create capable agents, who are able to facilitate the RET acculturation process in Indonesia.