This paper discusses the impact that so-called Community Renewable Energy (CRE) has had in two community areas in Indonesia. Of particular analysis and importance is the intermediary group – in this situation, Ibeka – that plays a direct role in building energy infrastructure in communities. They, similar to ECA, are multi-faceted; they impart infrastructure, tools, knowledge, and make the community as a whole more energy competent as a result. By examining the intermediary group in building energy infrastructure as a body that eases difficulties from external powers while simultaneously empowering communities with the ability to fend off external pressures, the author posits these third parties as a crucial role in developing energy infrastructure in particularly energy-vulnerable areas of the world.
This essay reiterates the importance of the “community helping hand” (called the “Ibeka factor” in the paper) in reducing energy vulnerability across borders. In particular, the business model that Ibeka takes on is that of interest – bringing together both public and private sectors as equal business partners, while incentivizing the government to redirect their funds towards this quasi-private endeavor instead. The author make of important note the problems also present in the system; like the third party becoming an entrenched, permanent presence after their usefulness has run out, thus harming the community’s energy independence that they strived for in the first place. This paper provides a fascinating look at the redirection of energy control from government, to agency, to community in order to emphasize the feasibility of infrastructure building at the local level in developing areas.
Susana Guerreiro and Iosif Botetzagias, "Empowering communities – the role of intermediary organisations in community renewable energy projects in Indonesia", contributed by Cam LaPorte, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 5 May 2020, accessed 29 April 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/empowering-communities-–-role-intermediary-organisations-community-renewable-energy-projects
Critical Commentary
This paper discusses the impact that so-called Community Renewable Energy (CRE) has had in two community areas in Indonesia. Of particular analysis and importance is the intermediary group – in this situation, Ibeka – that plays a direct role in building energy infrastructure in communities. They, similar to ECA, are multi-faceted; they impart infrastructure, tools, knowledge, and make the community as a whole more energy competent as a result. By examining the intermediary group in building energy infrastructure as a body that eases difficulties from external powers while simultaneously empowering communities with the ability to fend off external pressures, the author posits these third parties as a crucial role in developing energy infrastructure in particularly energy-vulnerable areas of the world.
This essay reiterates the importance of the “community helping hand” (called the “Ibeka factor” in the paper) in reducing energy vulnerability across borders. In particular, the business model that Ibeka takes on is that of interest – bringing together both public and private sectors as equal business partners, while incentivizing the government to redirect their funds towards this quasi-private endeavor instead. The author make of important note the problems also present in the system; like the third party becoming an entrenched, permanent presence after their usefulness has run out, thus harming the community’s energy independence that they strived for in the first place. This paper provides a fascinating look at the redirection of energy control from government, to agency, to community in order to emphasize the feasibility of infrastructure building at the local level in developing areas.