Subject: the outline of Peter Croal's work at CIDA.

I am currently coming towards the end of my PhD thesis which deals with
renewable energy technology in remote areas in Australia and rural
villages in Indonesia. A large part of my research deals with issues
related to the integration of indigenous knowledge into development
projects.

My research is based on the realisation that the success of rural
electrification in terms of development agendas is site specific. Energy
technologies need to be developed for each specific environment. We
cannot afford expensive rural electrification programmes that do not
produce sustainable results. For example, developing countries cannot
afford to be dependent on technology transfer and foreign supply to
sustain their technological progress. Thus, any proposed energy
technology needs to be researched not only into its technical
applications, but also critically, into the cultural, political,
economic and environmental context of its operation. The end users have
to be included in the decision-making processes, so that they become
stakeholders in the new technology, rather than remain passive
bystanders. This will result in a better understanding of how to apply
sustainable energy technology. In other words "to get it 90% right"
before spending large amounts of resources on providing technology that
is inappropriate, and/or misunderstood by the communities at the centre
of development efforts. I believe it is these factors that help define
sustainability.


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August Schlapfer
Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy
Murdoch University
Murdoch WA 6150
august@central.murdoch.edu.au