Solar panels in Prai Witu village in Sumba, Indonesia on February 16, 2022.
Photographer: Rony Zakaria for Bloomberg GreenEnergy & Science
A Solar Microgrid Brought Power to a Remote Village, Then Darkness
The network gave villagers in Indonesia consistent power for the first time — until international funding ran out.
For a few years, Prai Witu village in Indonesia was a shining example of the good that clean energy can bring to an impoverished community.
In 2017, the national government and Millennium Challenge Corp., a foreign-aid arm of the U.S., began installing micro electric grids to give residents access to a constant electricity flow for the first time. Within two years, only 3% of households connected to the grids were using nonrenewable energy, down from 21% before they were installed, according to Millennium Challenge.