This paper reports on the design and early outcomes from an Australian Development Research Award (ADRA) project to be conducted in 2008-2010 by Australian and Indonesian researchers. The project aims to identify and disseminate ways to use photovoltaic energy systems (PVES) and other renewable energy resources to facilitate sustainable development for communities in rural Indonesia without access to electricity grids - almost 50% of Indonesia’s population in 2005 and unlikely to fall due to Indonesia’s archipelagic nature. It will focus on Papua and NTT provinces in Eastern Indonesia, which have low electrification ratios as well as low Human Development Indices (HDI) and high Human Poverty Indices (HPI). By 2006, approximately 10MWp of PVES had been installed in Indonesia for lighting, water pumping, telecommunications, health clinics, etc. However many have failed and many other communities still lack basic electricity supply. This project aims to better understand why some PVES projects succeed while others fail, develop best-practice guidelines and transfer that knowledge to policy makers, project designers and implementers, rural communities and Indonesian research and education institutions. The project will use the I3A framework developed by Dr Retnanestri in her PhD project, described in a companion paper submitted to this conference, to explore how local communities can initially succeed with PVES installation and then continue to socially innovate to meet their evolving needs, considering institutional, financial, technological, social and ecological issues. Expected outcomes include recommendations on policy and best practices for project planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and education.