Pioneering a New Wave-based Renewable Energy Source for Coastal Fishing Communities
| Category | Energy Transition Our project categories represent one of three core solutions pathways to solving climate change. Energy Transition focuses on renewable energy access and energy efficiency. Nature Conservation includes wildlife habitat protection and ecosystem restoration, as well as Indigenous land rights. Regenerative Agriculture supports farmers, ranchers, and community agriculture. |
| Realm | Indomalaya The Project Marketplace is organized by the major terrestrial realms divided into 14 biogeographical regions – N. America, Subarctic America, C. America, S. America, Afrotropics, Indomalaya, Australasia, Oceania, Antarctica, and the Palearctic realm, which coincides with Eurasia and is divided into Subarctic, Western, Central, Eastern, and Southern regions. |
| Status | completed Seed indicates an early stage project that needs some level of support to develop into a larger funding proposal. Active indicates any project that needs core programmatic funding. Urgent indicates a short-term project initiated in response to a natural disaster or other impending risk. |
| Funding Level | $ A single $ indicates a small project requiring $50,000 or less. |
| Partner | New Energy Nexus |
One Earth’s Project Marketplace funds on-the-ground climate solutions that are key to solving the climate crisis through three pillars of collective action — renewable energy, nature conservation, and regenerative agriculture.
Located in the biggest archipelago in the world, Indonesia’s coastal communities depend on marine livelihoods. Their dispersed residential pattern makes access to the national grid expensive and difficult, and most fishing platforms are powered by noisy, polluting diesel generators. Although there is ample opportunity to electrify rural areas by using off-grid renewable energy systems, Indonesia doesn’t have regulations to promote them.
New Energy Nexus Indonesia helped develop an ocean wave energy converter technology called Pendulum, led by a woman entrepreneur in Java. The Pendulum technology produces electricity for hard-reach offshore fishing platforms, helping fishermen and coastal communities living on isolated islands to have access to clean, affordable energy.
The first Pendulum prototype was built in about 10 months during the COVID-19 lockdown, and based on recent testing, Pendulum will make a major design improvement to the second prototype to minimize the effects of rolling and heaving motion, further increasing energy production. Plans are now in the works to introduce the technology through two pilot installations in Java.
Supporting the work of New Energy Nexus in Indonesia will help Pendulum finalize its design and build and install in two different locations along the Javan coast, targeting users of offshore fishing platforms. This philanthropic investment can help create a viable business, tacking a particularly challenging region for energy decarbonization. Long term, technologies like Pendulum can help to prevent the expansion of oil & gas in pristine ecosystems.