Rays of Hope
Fulldome Documentary — Renewable Energy
The sun has been the source of all energy on Earth for four billion years. We are only beginning to understand how to work with it — not against it.
Rays of Hope is an immersive fulldome documentary exploring solar, wind, water, geothermal and tidal energy — not as technology, but as living forces. Poetic, cinematic and emotionally driven, the film takes audiences on a journey across Europe.
From Alpine hydropower to North Sea wind farms. From Icelandic geothermal fields to sun-drenched solar plains in Morocco. Real locations. Real energy. Experienced in the dome.
The film is produced for planetariums across Europe and the UK — designed for the audiences who need this story most: the generation that will live with the decisions we make today.
The film is developed in close partnership with the Verkehrshaus der Schweiz — Switzerland's most visited museum and home to the country's largest planetarium.
Since 2023, the Verkehrshaus has been running Experience Energy! — a 600 m² interactive exhibition on energy systems, sustainability and the energy transition. The exhibition educates. The planetarium makes it felt.
Rays of Hope transforms what visitors explore on the ground into something they can feel all around them. Currently in development — in co-production with Verkehrshaus der Schweiz. We are actively seeking co-production partners across Europe..
Rays of Hope — AI concept visuals. Full teaser in production.
Five forces. One planet. One dome.
Rays of Hope does not explain renewable energy. It places the audience inside it — standing beneath a wind turbine as it turns, floating above a solar field in the Sahara, feeling the heat of an Icelandic geyser rise through the dome. Each energy source has its own chapter, its own landscape, its own rhythm.
Ouarzazate, Morocco. The world's largest concentrated solar power station — seen from above and from within.
North Sea. Offshore wind turbines in open water — scale that photographs cannot capture.
Swiss Alps and Rhine. Hydropower from glacier to turbine — the oldest renewable energy in Europe.
Iceland. Heat from the earth's core — geysers, power plants and a nation that runs almost entirely on clean energy.
Orkney, Scotland. Orbital Marine Power — the world's most powerful tidal turbine, turning ocean current into electricity.
Aelia — the embodiment of the sun.
Not a narrator.
A presence.
Aelia is the symbolic figure at the heart of Rays of Hope — the personification of solar energy, a guide through the world of renewable forces. She does not explain. She leads.
In the dome, Aelia moves through landscapes of wind and water, geothermal steam and tidal current. She makes the invisible visible — the flow of energy through the natural world, the connection between a geyser in Iceland and a light switch in Zürich.
Science communicates more when it has a face. And energy makes more sense when you can feel it moving.
Six countries. Six landscapes. One story.
Every location in Rays of Hope was chosen for one reason: it makes the energy real. Not as infrastructure — as experience.
Storage lakes and pumped-storage power plants in the Swiss Alps — the backbone of European energy balancing.
Volcanoes, geysers and geothermal power plants. A country that heats 90% of its homes with energy from the earth.
The Noor complex — one of the world's largest concentrated solar power installations, in the Saharan desert.
Wind turbines in open water — the scale of renewable energy at sea, impossible to convey in a photograph.
The world's most powerful tidal energy turbine — O2, rated at 2 MW, generating power from the tidal stream.
The world's first tidal power station, operational since 1966 — a landmark of energy history at the mouth of the Rance estuary.
Anchored in Switzerland. Built for Europe.
Rays of Hope launches with an anchor co-production partner in Switzerland — and is developed from the outset for distribution across the European and UK planetarium network. We are actively seeking co-production partners from planetariums, science centres and energy institutions across Europe.
Verkehrshaus
der Schweiz
The Verkehrshaus der Schweiz is Switzerland's most visited museum — 1.4 million visitors per year. Its planetarium, the largest in the country, programmes for school groups, families and specialist audiences year-round.
Since 2023, the Verkehrshaus has run Experience Energy! — a 600 m² hands-on exhibition on energy systems, sustainability and the energy transition. The exhibition gives facts. The planetarium makes them felt.
Rays of Hope is the natural continuation of this programme into the dome. Visitors move from the exhibition floor directly into the planetarium — and into the world of renewable energy from above, below and all around them. One institution. One coherent experience. One of the strongest openings a fulldome film can have.
Over 300 fulldome venues across Europe and the UK — and growing.
Europe has one of the world's densest networks of public planetariums and fulldome venues. Renewable energy and climate science are among the most consistently programmed subject areas — with strong institutional demand from science centres, natural history museums and university observatories.
Europe & UK
United Kingdom alone
venues worldwide
no expiry date
A successful fulldome film enters permanent programming rotation at each venue — shown to school groups, families and public audiences for years, sometimes decades. Unlike a cinema release, a planetarium film does not have a box office window. It has a programming lifespan.
Key Venues — Target Distribution NetworkMost visited planetarium in Europe — over 400,000 visitors per year
World's oldest large planetarium — home of Fulldome Festival Jena
23-metre dome, currently undergoing full digital upgrade
UK's largest fulldome planetarium — major school programme audience
Reopened 2024 after full refurbishment — strong climate programming
Host of Fulldome Festival Brno — leading European fulldome showcase
We are actively seeking co-production partners
from planetariums and science institutions across Europe.
Why support Rays of Hope?
The energy transition is the defining challenge of this generation. It is also one of the most difficult stories to communicate — too abstract for television, too complex for social media. The dome is the one medium that can make it genuinely felt.
Rays of Hope will reach audiences that no conference, report or advertisement can reach: schoolchildren on their first visit to a planetarium. Families experiencing science together. University students who will build the energy infrastructure of the next fifty years. And the hundreds of thousands who visit the Verkehrshaus and its European counterparts every year.
Verkehrshaus visitors per year — the film's anchor venue before European distribution begins.
Fulldome venues across Germany, UK, France, Benelux, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe — each with dedicated school and public programming.
Fulldome films enter permanent programming rotation. A single production communicates for decades — not months.
- Naming rights — film title association
- Opening credits · premiere presence
- Content partnership — branded chapter
- All distribution materials
- Priority visibility at 300+ venues
- Credit in closing titles
- Premiere event presence
- Logo on distribution materials
- Mention in press releases
- Regional premiere rights
- School programme integration
- Educational materials
- Shared marketing
Detailed partnership terms are available on request — we welcome enquiries from energy companies, foundations, science institutions and planetariums across Europe.
A realistic budget for a film built to last.
Rays of Hope is a live-action fulldome documentary — shot at six real locations across Europe, produced to 12K and delivered at minimum 8K for planetarium distribution. The total budget reflects the scope, the format and the ambition.
Live-action fulldome production · 12K · 6 locations across Europe · 45 minutes · Detailed breakdown available on request.
How we get there — a diversified approach.
Documentary film funding works best when it is layered — public cultural funds, institutional co-production partners, private sponsors and energy industry partners each contribute from their own mandate. Rays of Hope sits at the intersection of science communication, cultural production and the energy transition — which opens doors that most films cannot reach.
Built for the most demanding fulldome projection environments.
Rays of Hope is produced to the technical standard required by leading planetariums and dome theatres worldwide — including Cosm venues and large-format digital dome systems.
Fulldome
12K production
TBD
45 minutes
German · English
Additional languages available
Live-Action · Real locations
Minimum CGI environments
Planetariums · Dome theatres
Cosm venues · Mobile domes
Urs Wyss — Avocado360 Studio
Urs Wyss
Director · Founder, Avocado360 StudioUrs Wyss has been working at the intersection of documentary photography, immersive film and science communication since the 1990s. He founded Avocado360 in 2012 — one of the first studios in Europe to specialise in live-action fulldome and 360° VR film production.
His fulldome documentary Plaine Morte — filmed inside a disappearing Swiss glacier — won the Henri Nannen Prize and the Deutscher Reporterpreis, and has been shown at fulldome festivals worldwide including FULLDOME UK, Dome Fest West and Fulldome Brno.
Rays of Hope continues the same thread: real locations, real stakes, real experience. Science that moves people because they are inside it.
fulldome film productionInterested in supporting
Rays of Hope?
Energy companies · Foundations · Planetariums · Cultural sponsors