Dell’s Solar Community Hubs do more than just break down the digital divide

Dell is one of the winners of Fast Company’s 2023 World Changing Ideas Awards. Explore the full list of projects we’re honoring for making the world more equitable, accessible, and sustainable.



Nearly half the world’s population still has no internet access, which means that some of the people most in need of basic services, such as healthcare and water, have trouble accessing them.



Dell Technologies has responded by converting old shipping containers into what it calls Solar Community Hubs—customizable destinations, powered by solar panels on the structure’s roof, providing technology to help meet a community’s needs. These hubs are the winner of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Award in the Corporate Social Responsibility category.



[Photo: Dell]



The first Solar Community Hub was launched in March 2022, in Boa Esperança, deep in the Brazilian Amazon. The hub became an educational center that also enables residents to track the deforestation in an area that has lost 19% of its tree cover since 2000. Dell worked with the Foundation for Amazon Sustainability to install equipment, including drones and environmental monitors. Between March 3 and March 10, 2023, more than 200 alerts about tree loss were posted from Boa Esperança.



[Image: Squire & Partners/courtesy Dell]



Dell has opened three Solar Community Hubs in Brazil and South Africa since, with plans to open two more in Egypt (focusing on career and life skills) and one in Australia (focusing on preserving and protecting Aboriginal art and culture).



“We’re revamping, adjusting, and bringing the benefits of what we saw last year to the network,” says Ahmed Houcine Faik, manager of the global Solar Community Initiative at Dell. “We see this as planting a seed, and creating an ecosystem to provide as much value as possible.”