For the past two months, January and Feb 2014, various disasters hit Indonesia in many parts of the country. Mostly floods and volcanic eruptions, but there were also landslides and haze hazards.

In many occasions during disaster, electricity was cut out. Even in the capital city Jakarta, the blackout happened frequently in areas hit by flood.

With dedicated volunters working to help disasters survivors, I was thinking to see the disasters from the bright side. Maybe we can use the disaster situation as a good change to introduce new ways of providing electricity to communities using renewable energy?

For Indonesia, the energy problems are complex. The root cause is the excessive dependence on oil. This trend of energy consumption will continue to take place despite rising oil prices. It is a longtime irony that Indonesia, rich in various energy resources, has become oil-dominated. If current generations are not strongly voicing these concerns, in the longer term high dependence on oil is getting extremely costly and making our environment dirtier. 

Soon after, or during, emergency respond in disaster-affected areas, the unfortunate situation can be turned into opportunity by rebuilding a model of ?green? community. The master plan may include goals for making residential and public facilities more energy efficient through renewable energy projects. Retrofitting existing homes, for example, could lead to average improvements of 25%, while doing the same for public buildings could cut energy use in half. 

The hardest part is getting started. But as always, there are more reasons for optimism than pessimism. And sometimes, the best moment to do a great re-start is through the hardest moments.