Negotiating a renewable energy-led structural transformation: the Cirata FSPP case study

In 2019, Indonesia experienced a breakthrough in their renewable energy pipeline through the launch of the Cirata Floating Solar Power Plant, claimed to be the largest floating solar farm in Southeast Asia, and the third largest in the world. Its completion was celebrated as both a clean energy breakthrough and a hallmark for green job creation. An article published by Kompas titled “Fishermen 'Throw Their Nets' to Become Solar Power Plant Installation Workers” highlights a job transition training program designed by the companies to assist fishers from Citamiang and Ciroyom who lost their job site due to the presence of the power plant. While the article hailed the program as a success, a follow up article by the same media company showed a contrasting narrative: one where fishers lost their livelihood and were unable to access these promised new jobs. The research’s main objective is to better understand the dynamics behind this contrasting story which emerged from the same geography, one that has experienced a large-scale, renewable energy driven transformation in the past. Using an ethnographic approach, the research investigates historical precedents and power structures which feed into the novel condition of Cirata today: one with clear evidence of grievance yet lack visible resistance from the impacted fisher communities. This research presents a distinct approach to conflict study, as defined by Pruitt & Rubin (1986) as “perceived divergence of interest, or a belief that the parties’ current aspirations cannot be achieved simultaneously”. It seeks to investigate the negotiation processes of Cirata as the battleground of conflict: where each stakeholders’ perceptions of power, duty, and rights inform how they strategize and navigate around their second land re-organization brought by national energy development, only this time, on water. [...] This research hopes to provide a nuance take on the dialogue between national renewable energy imperative and local societies’ welfare. Through the unique case of Cirata, it seeks to display how even under the best of interests, lack of monitoring and participation would lead into the same mistakes repeating over the course of one lifetime. Finally, it hopes to have conveyed the voices of Cirata’s fishers, and hopefully encouraged future studies and initiatives which may help level the playing field of negotiations between local communities and state-sponsored energy projects.