DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Participation of Women in Renewable Energy (POWERE): Inclusive Innovation with Floating Photovoltaics in Remote Island and Coastal Communities

Project disclaimer

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Description

The Global South is disproportionately vulnerable to climate change due to widespread poverty, inequality, and reliance on climate-dependent sectors, while island-based and coastal communities are among the most vulnerable due to rising sea levels, warming temperatures, and increasingly, extreme weather. Those that live on remote islands are often off-grid and resort to fossil-fuel-based provisions where possible to enable connectivity, productivity and consumption yet adding to carbon emissions that detrimentally affect their environments. This POWERE project will respond to the countervailing challenges of remote coastal communities wanting regular electricity, while lowering carbon emissions through innovating in next-generation floating photovoltaic (FPV) solar units in Indonesia—the largest archipelagic nation with 17,000+ islands. These alternative renewables will be pursued with women-led self-help groups (SHGs) among our partners’ established networks—SHGs who to date have not been engaged in renewable energy and rely upon diesel generators for electricity. The project's goals are to empower marginalised women deemed as ‘experts of everyday life’ to be at the helm of socio-technical step changes by working with FPV for remote island SHGs invested in seaweed farming. We will embed technological developments in context and in peer-to-peer networks to appraise their impact socially, economically and environmentally, including researching socio-cultural or behavioural changes and any in-group or neighbouring group benefits and tensions that may arise. Our focus then is on a holistic and synergised understanding of sustainability from social, economic, energy, environmental, and knowledge/skills-based perspectives. The main aims and objectives are to: co-develop FPV projects for off-grid island/coastal populations; conduct participatory research in 3 villages in Indonesia’s poorer outer islands with women-led seaweed farming groups for community learning and comparative analysis; co-design, deploy, and implement 4 near-shore FPV units (minimum 10 kilowatt each) and energy storage in each of the 3 villages to support seaweed farming (e.g. drying technology) and value-added activities (e.g. processing raw seaweed into finished goods for local markets); evaluate FPV’s impact on community and women’s productivity and livelihoods; establish peer-to-peer-network to channel knowledge, skills and outputs to neighbouring areas; organise regional and international conferences to incentivise stakeholders with multiple advantages of moving away from fossil-fuel reliance; develop multilingual, multi-media toolkit including text, design illustrations, infographics, photography and films with (i) capacity-building and training modules, and (ii) best practice, socially-embedded business models, and financial options for off-grid island/coastal communities foregrounding SHGs, marginalised coastal livelihoods, and human-environment challenges; disseminate outputs widely to ODA-recipient countries with off-grid island/coastal communities (e.g. Philippines, Vietnam, Timor Leste). The project is interdisciplinary, innovative and inclusive, responding to specific challenge areas of next generation solar, decarbonisation, and inclusive energy and leaving no-one behind. Project outputs include: FPV units for off-grid communities; peer-to-peer workshops and POWERE network; community-led regional conference; multimedia, multilingual toolkit including design, socially-embedded business, financial and best practice models in inclusive renewables; films—for training; to document project showcasing pilot project for public screenings; and social media clips; impact roadmap including Southeast Asian countries with remote off-grid island/coastal communities; policy briefings for local/national governmental bodies, (I)NGOs, and coastal management partnerships etc.; online symposium to engage stakeholders in Global South with similar remote, off-grid island/coastal communities and environments; 3 co-authored media articles (e.g. Conversation, Rappler, Tempo); 6 interdisciplinary open-access journal articles (e.g. Ecology and Society, Sustainable Development, Energy, Sustainability and Society, Gender and Development, HAU, Southeast Asia Research); project report; project website.

Objectives

ISPF aims to foster prosperity by solving shared global research and innovation challenges. This will be done through working closely with international partners to: support research excellence and build the knowledge and technology of tomorrow strengthen ties with international partners that share our values; enable researchers and innovators to cultivate connections, follow their curiosity and pioneer transformations internationally, for the good of the planet. Activities under ISPF ODA aim to deliver research and innovation partnerships with low- and middle-income countries.

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Location

The country, countries or regions that benefit from this Programme.

Indonesia