Last month, Ignasius Jonan, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources released the statement that Indonesia may not be able to achieve target for the energy mix 2025. He said that existing policies are already more than enough to attract investor, but the problem is competition with traditional fuels which is comparatively cheaper. He also argued that despite the price is lower and the technology is available, the development of renewable energy would still take time. Then what we can do to contribute to the acceleration of the renewable energy transition?
Beside economic issues, societal acceptance topic is also important in
the renewable energy transition. The energy transition includes macro-level
innovations that often consist of a series of technological advancements. This
is usually followed by changes in societies, their economic and social domains.
Therefore, it requires social innovation.
Social innovation is various ways where people are making new and more
effective solutions and answers to the actual problems. Social innovation
acknowledges community participation. High levels of participation reflect a
community’s acceptance towards the social innovation. Social innovation includes
business element. New business models on social innovation can result in
profits in the form of livelihoods for local communities. A collaboration of
civil society and business actors with government agencies can help provide
incentives for social innovation. The incentives address the economic issue. It
also stimulates change in citizen behavior, which implies that social
innovation needs to be inserted into an economic structure of interdependencies
between multiple actors. Therefore, citizens have a key role within the
renewable-energy transition, especially in cities which are good target for
social innovation because it has well-educated citizens which could see the use
of fossil fuels as a problem.
Social innovation can function as a tool to analyze changes in social
relations resulting from recent technological innovations. The technological
innovation does not only affect the energy production and consumption cycles,
but also the (in)direct effects on consumers and the environment. Social
innovation involves all sectors of society, i.e. (combinations of) public,
private, and civil society actors. Social practices and the policies are
essential to determine how socio-technical transitions play out. Examples of
policies that shape social practices are subsidies on solar panels and
sustainable housing policies. These social practices’ policies need to be promoted
within the energy transition.
Urban clean-energy transitions are not the result of a change in the
technical processes of energy consumption, distribution, and production. But,
that it largely depends on the combination of “how infrastructures, buildings, industries, institutions, as well as
individuals and social groups, their practices and values both shape and are
shaped by context-specific, conflicting energy needs, uses, forms of
management, etc.” work together. Consumers are not isolated but inserted
into an economic structure of interdependencies between multiple related
actors. This context stimulates systemic change that surrounds consumers.
A renewable-energy transition in cities requires a systemic change. Empowering social innovation is one
of drivers of systemic change in cities. Urban grassroots niches such as citizen energy initiatives can be established as a social
innovation to utilize existing energy subsidies. So, cities have the ability to
create new energy markets and to function as hubs for social innovation. Government
and private interest groups have an opportunity to provide incentives for citizen
energy initiatives.
Several examples of
social innovation are prosumer initiatives and energy cooperatives. A prosumer
is a citizen as energy consumer that also produces energy, e.g. solar panels on
one’s roof. One of such a prosumer initiative is the Smart Grid project which
facilitates bi-directional energy and information flow between the utility grid
and the energy consumer. It not only allows the consumer to generate energy but
also to share it with other energy consumers throughout the grid. This kind of
initiative is often associated with the idea of energy cooperatives.
Cooperatives can manage microhydro power to foster the development of local energy
communities. Multiple actors engage with the institutionalization and
establishment of social innovations that support the development of
decentralized energy systems.
By producing and consuming their own energy, the citizen can become
active market players. Thus, by letting citizens get acquainted with this role
– multiple actors have to stimulate the development from a passive to a
pro-active consumer. In principle, when citizen is closely engaged with energy
production, they will have a higher awareness of renewable energy sources.
The energy transition goes hand-in-hand with social, economic, and
political shifts. Social innovations are interlinked with other drivers for the
socio-energy systemic change and it means that the systemic change also works
as drivers to support social innovation.
Another driver looks at “transforming
urban metabolisms and political ecologies”. The citizens can make
coalitions with local governments and other actors, to test new technologies
and services to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, maintain today’s
living standards, and sustain economic growth. It gives legitimacy, openness,
and accountability of the multi-level governance process.
Then, “configuring green
economies” could also be driver for
urban innovation systems. It pays particular attention to
transformations of the production and consumption cycles of energy. This
implies a focus on businesses and consumers, and their place-dependent
networks, strategies, and requirements for creating a green business. Knowledge
transfers and (social) innovations are facilitated through cooperation, e.g. by
networks of actors with shared-values. It provides opportunity to increase wider
citizen participation in social innovation.
This article was published in The Jakarta Post
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