Eradicating Energy Poverty in Haiti.

Here is how EarthSpark International poses the "issue":

"Poor households and small businesses in developing countries pay a lot for low quality fuels even though inexpensive, high-quality substitutes are being produced by companies around the world."

And I like their approach to finding solutions.  Basically, EarthSpark works at three levels, local, country level, and internationally, with the main objective of working with communities "to provide access to clean energy technologies that make sense for their needs".  On the country and international levels, they work with entrepreneurs and organizations to develop country-scale supply chains and the best energy technologies.

And their local level approach, which I especially like, is composed of "clean energy stores", a sort of hub for not only providing energy services and products (like LED lamps, efficient stoves, ...) , but also creating a space for the local community to learn and be trained in using and building more complex energy systems (installing solar panels, building efficient stoves, producing charcoal from alternative sources, ...).

They have opened a clean energy store in Les Anglais, a small coastal town in the southwestern part of Haiti, with the aim to provide solar lighting to 100% of the population.

Read their explanation of their model - it's better than mine.  :)

I will explore more to see how effective EarthSpark is, but overall, I find that their holistic yet clearly-defined approach could lead to very interesting solutions.

They have a blog too!!