Describe the critical need your solution addresses.

In the time that it takes to read this sentence, another 41 more people will be born - 17 of them will spend their lives without access to the electricity. Those people will cook with bio-fuels aggravating global warming; threatening rainforests; and, causing fatal respiratory diseases.

Explain your initiative in more depth and its stage of development.

Clean energy has the power to combat climate change and boost sustainable development worldwide. To develop renewable energy projects, The Dome will provide remote communities with financial funds, technical assistance, and training to set up and operate clean energy businesses in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These businesses in turn will light poor households, preserve natural resources and expand income.

With SWITCH!, The Dome will offer full implementation of the wind-energy solution through actively involving the communities we reach with: the design, construction, maintenance and commissioning process ; thus, turning them into the 'hosts' of the received power system.

SWITCH! evaluates potential wind development sites and use technology to bring clean power to the people.

SWITCH! boosts local economies and creates employment by manufacturing wind turbines and other key components locally near their point of usage.

SWITCH! builds capabilities on the community for the safe operation and maintenance of the system in the long term.

SWITCH! empowers local entrepreneurs to create a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous planet whilst generating financial returns on investment.

SWITCH! implies the necessity for change and different thinking, switching the ways we operate.

How does your strategy and approach respond creatively and comprehensively to key issues?

SWITCH! is the consequence of a collaboration between The Dome, Allard Van Hoorn (artist) and Tunde Shoderu (designer). They initially approached us interested in bringing Internet to remote African villages.

If a community is angry because they have been denied public works projects like electrification by the government, then connecting these villages could help dissolve the formation or support of a potential guerilla group.

Internet access in these types of areas will empower villagers to avoid governmental abuses as they take advantage of the global network that is newly accessible to them. As they become connected with the world, Internet will also prevent people from trying to illegally immigrate to developed countries.

During the early stages of the project we identified key questions that were important to answer as part of our project. The most important was: How to operate in an energy-challenged environment? We realized back then, that before providing any further solutions, communities needed a reliable access to electricity.

Wireless Remote Internet Access has been commercially available for some time now. However, the lack of electricity makes its installation unfeasible in most remote regions.

For people living in remote areas, clean electricity has the potential to completely revolutionize their lives. The changes that accompany access to electricity are vast and varied and the social impact of those changes has been widely assessed, and can be easily predicted.

Apart from lighting and Internet access, a number of solutions become available once a reliable electricity system is installed in the community. These solutions have the potential to boost sustainable development and include, but are not limited to:

Power pumps
Water disinfection/treatment units
Equipment for sustainable harvest of the forest
Remote wind monitoring equipment
Educational Tools