The Kulon Progo Improved Cook Stove Project in Indonesia demonstrates the development effectiveness of off-grid renewable energy projects.
Coconut sugar is a primary commodity of Kulon Progo and its production makes a significant contribution to the local economy. To harvest coconut sugar, the villagers have traditionally heated liquid sapped from coconut’s young flowers for several hours on a traditional three-hole stove fueled by firewood. This technique produces harmful levels of indoor air pollution.
Women in this region spend a majority of their time harvesting coconut sugar and often suffer from acute respiration infection due to the excess smoke produced by the firewood. Children are also exposed to the pollution and thus at high-risk for developing respiratory illness.
The Improved Cook Stove project was initiated by Yayasan Dian Desa, a Jakarta-based NGO that focuses on community development and improving biomass utilization. Since installing the ICSs, the villagers have seen positive changes in their quality of life. The excessive smoke that caused illness has been reduced considerably and cooking time is shorter, which allows villagers to produce coconut sugar more efficiently and earn higher incomes. The use of fuel-wood has been cut by 50 percent, which means women spend less time collecting wood and more time on other productive, income-earning activities.
Development institutions such as the World Bank will hopefully draw lessons from this research as they draft its new Energy Strategy. These projects are a testament to the development effectiveness of off-grid renewable energy projects in improving peoples’ lives, as compared with extractive and large hydro-power projects.
READ MORE
Scaling up renewable energy investments: Lessons from the best practices model in Indonesia, by Fabby Tumiwa and Imelda Rambitan, Institute for Essential Services Reform, July 2010 (PDF, 1.07MB)
Case Studies in renewable energy in Indonesia, Institute for Essential Services Reform, July 2010 (PDF, 1.18MB)
