Off-grid Solutions Project

Indonesia Activity Report

October,2018 - January,2022

Model development of utilization of solar energy for community business in borders of West Kalimantan

Activity Overview

Semitau and Suhaid, Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan

Population: 662. Most people are engaged in farming or fishing. The village gains a plentiful catch due to its location near the river, but finds it hard to increase income because of the difficulty of preserving or processing the fish.

Map of West Kalimantan: Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Jakarta, Java, Bali, Pulau lombok

Main activities

Local human resource development through awareness raising and learning program

Development of human resources who are engaged in operation and maintenance of solar power supply station^* Awareness raining of how to utilize electricity.

Donation of Solar power supply station^* and Solar storage system

We will supply enough electricity to local places where we live together.

Power supply station^*
Ene-loop solar storage

Support income generation
(development of local industry)

Developing models of local industry using electricity.

Improvement of efficiency of processing fish
Increasing of productivity of agriculture by improvement of soil
Processing and marketing of agricultural products
Improvement of processing natural honey

Target regions :	Kapuas Hulu, Sub-district of Semitau (12 villages) and Suhaid (11 villages), West Kalimantan province, Indonesia
Implementation period :	2 years (January 2018 – December 2020)

* This Power supply station (Power supply container) was discontinued in March 2019. So currently we cannot supply and donate it. Thank you for your understanding.

Partner organizations

Yayasan Dian Desa

Through technical support and interactive self-help processes for all of Southeast Asia, this organization helps improve community income and quality of life. Director Anton Soedjarwo was the youngest awardee of the Ramon Magsaysay Award which is called "Nobel Prize of Asia“, in 1983 for his community leadership.

http://www.diandesa.org/

Asian Community Center 21

Asian Community Center 21

Asian Community Center 21 (ACC21) is an international cooperation NGO working to reduce poverty in Asia based on a broad network with other Asian NGOs. It aims to help empower those people suffering from poverty in the Asian region. To achieve this aim, in collaboration with other Asian NGOs and civil society organizations, ACC21 promotes the following four FLOWs in Asia: FLOWs of (1) capital, (2) people, (3) information and (4) reform of policy and institutions. It also promotes development of human resources engaged in the four FLOWS in order to make them grow and be sustainable.

http://www.acc21.org/index_english.html

Village in harmony with a large river

The Marsedan Raya village is situated next to the Kapuas river, the longest river in Indonesia. 662 people are living in nature located about 300 km inland from the provincial capital. Although about half of the houses have solar panels or power generators installed with government subsidies and use lights, residents are able to use electricity only 40% of the time due to inadequate power generation capacity.

Photo left: The house is elevated in order to avoid water level./Photo right: In rainy season the water level of Kapuas river rises. — Villagers are living in stilted houses and using river water for domestic use. Many of them are engaged in river fishery. The river rises during the rainy season and sometimes causes flood damage to part of the village.

Photo left: People prepare lunch./Photo right: The health center of Marsedan Raya village — The staple food is rice, but expensive in the village. Only about 4 kg of rice can be bought with the residents' monthly average income of 500,000 rupiah (approx. 4,000 yen).

Creating income sources
from the blessings of nature

Although the village is rich in fishery resources, it is difficult for the residents to make a living solely with fresh fish because they don't have access to refrigerators. They produce salted or dried fish by hand. In addition, farm crops and honey produced by boiling down natural honeycombs constitute limited income sources. If they have access to power, then the processing productivity and quality will improve and lead to an increased standard of living.

Photo left: Some catch fish in the wild./Photo right: Snake head fish is abundantly. — Catching snakehead and other freshwater fish. In season, a large volume of fish is caught but goes to waste. Electricity will be able to increase the residents' income by enabling the preservation and efficient processing of fish.

Photo left: People cultivate vegetables, etc./Photo right: A natural honey — Soil condition can be improved by putting in organic fertilizers using locally available materials such as milled palm kernels. Then cash crops such as moringa, which is known and becoming popular as a superfood can be grown. Quality of natural honey processing method can also be improved.

Photo left: Process in making dried salted fish/Photo right: Process in making smoked fish — Fish is dried, smoked, or processed into fish dumplings and fishmeal, and then sold. Processing productivity will increase by improving processing efficiency with the use of electricity, which will lead to an increase in residents' income.

Photo left: Process in making fish powder by woman/Photo right: Process in making fish cake by woman — Mainly women dry the fish and make fishmeal and fish dumplings. A fish dumpling called kerupuk basah is a common dish in Indonesia.

Activity Results

Realizing the production of processed agricultural products through the use of electricity.

Approximately two years since January 2018, Panasonic has made progress in the development of a model for livelihood development through solar power generation in a frontier of West Kalimantan, through the tripartite partnership among Panasonic, Yayasan Dian Desa and Asian Community Center 21.

Towards the goal of making social impacts by achieving sustainable development of the communities, we designed participatory activities, involving the local communities. Our efforts yielded appreciable results, including the development of processed food from local agricultural products by using electricity generated from photovoltaic and energy storage systems.

Inputs
(investments)

Two photovoltaic and energy storage systems

Activities

Raising awareness of electricity use, Provision of expertise and techniques for the production and processing of agricultural products, Cultivation of agricultural materials and development of processed food, Development of processed food from freshwater fish, Production of organic fertilizer

Outputs
(activity results)

Basic training on photovoltaic system operations: 27 local residents, Training on fertilizer production: 59 local residents, Training on production and processing agricultural products: 8 local residents

Cultivation of moringa trees: 107,000 Harvest: 871 kg, Selling of processed food (moringa capsules): 337 packages, Roselle production: About 22 kg , Development of processed Roselle products (tea and jam), Honey extraction: 315 kg, Production of processed honey: 50 kg, Freshwater fish, Development of dried fish powder for sprinkling over rice and dishes: 29 kg

Development of community businesses by marketing of the processed products

Future activities to create more social impacts

To improve the income of local communities facing financial difficulties, we will further accelerate project activities through ensuring the sustainable production of processed food and develop sales channels to share the profit with the local communities.

We launched a new project to promote photovoltaic power generation systems for off-grid and semi-electrified areas. To realize that, we will develop easy-to-use photovoltaic power generation systems for homes and implement test marketing including development of a leasing scheme.