Operating in the Santa Cruz and Nicoya counties of the Guanacaste region, Sol de Vida takes a holistic approach to expanding the use of renewable energy. The project not only promotes the use of solar power for cooking, but also seeks to build women’s capacity for other development activities through the process of constructing and using solar cookers. The project originated in 1989 when an American physics professor, William Lankford, visited Costa Rica and a number of women attended a workshop he gave on building solar cookers. After this, the women themselves established the Sol de Vida in 1994. See Central American Solar Energy Project for more information about Professor Lankford.