Geographic Information System-Adjusted Rural Access Screening Framework for Solar Photovoltaic Intervention Planning in Indonesia

Rural solar photovoltaic (PV) intervention planning in archipelagic countries requires more than electrification ratios because road access, inter-island logistics, construction burden, solar resource, and local intervention need shape the remaining underserved settlements. This study develops a provincial screening framework for rural PV intervention planning in Indonesia by adapting the Rural Access Index (RAI) into a Geographic Information System (GIS)-adjusted Rural Access Index (ARAI) as an implementation-difficulty layer. The method estimates ARAI and road access deficit (RAD) using a 2-km road buffer, rural population masks, national road-condition scenarios, selected OpenStreetMap regency roads, and a port-access sensitivity layer. ARAI/RAD is then combined with underdeveloped-village status, household electricity deficit, non-utility household reliance, remote-village irradiation, and the Construction Cost Index (CCI) to construct the intervention need, solar suitability, implementation difficulty, and planning typology. The results show that the mean ARAI ranges from 45.8% in the baseline scenario to 53.0% in the most inclusive scenario, confirming persistent rural road-access constraints. The rural population mask affects ARAI more than the International Roughness Index threshold or port layer. The most access-constrained screening contexts include parts of Kalimantan, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, and Papua, while the final typology separates near-term candidates, strategic candidates requiring logistics and subsidy support, design-check provinces, solar-opportunity provinces, and monitoring groups. The typology is a robust provincial prefeasibility tool based on weight-sensitivity and qualitative validation checks. The contribution of this study is a transferable ARAI-based framework that links rural accessibility, electricity need, solar suitability, and implementation burden before conducting feasibility studies at the village level.

Archipelagic rural electrification; Geospatial analysis; Off-grid solar photovoltaic; Rural Access Index; Rural energy planning

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