Empowering remote island communities with renewable energy : a preliminary study of Talaud Island

This paper describes a preliminary study of the empowering remote island communities with renewable energy. This research is a case study for Talaud island which is located in the border island between Indonesia and Philipines. It is located in Kiama village Talaud Island regency of North Sulawesi province of Indonesia. Method of implementation of this program consists of several stages, namely: (1) Implementation of small-scale solar home system and a wind turbine; (2) Through technology transfer in the capacity building activities to the selected community, in order to provide the skill and knowledge to island community in Kiama Village, Talaud Islands of Indonesia. It is expected that technology implementation will be maintained in the future and sustainable. The life cycle cost analysis is done by comparing two system of pilot projects, namely solar home system and solar home system with a wind turbine. The cost of generating electrical energy with renewable energy is relatively high then it is necessary to provide strategies for the development of power infrastructure for the sake of the energy security of island communities in Indonesia. Further both monitoring and evaluation of the renewable energy system implementation should be conducted for the detail report and analysis.