Abstract
Bushlight is a 4-year program (now extended for another 2 years) funded by the Australian Government and managed by the Centre for Appropriate Technology, Australia. It aims to improve the livelihood choices of about 100 small remote Indigenous communities by providing sustainable energy services in the form of photovoltaic systems. This paper evaluates the sustainability, cost effectiveness and community outcomes of implementing photovoltaic systems using the Bushlight Community Energy Planning Model (CEPM) in remote Indigenous communities in comparison with the conventional practices. Using case studies of four remote Indigenous communities, it was found that the Bushlight CEPM was more likely to provide sustained energy services, and encourage community empowerment at a competitive life-cycle cost per person when compared with the conventional practices.