Renewable Power Perspectives Q&A with Kristal Hansley, Founder & CEO of WeSolar, Inc.

By Constance ThompsonAugust 27, 2021
The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) is happy to share the first installment in our “Accelerating Renewables” blog series. Each installation will feature industry leaders and subjects related to speeding up a fair and just transition to a renewable resource economy. In acknowledgment of National Black Business Month, our August blog site is the very first in a series highlighting how Black-owned member business are growing in the renewable energy sector.
Kristal Hansley is the Founder & & CEO of WeSolar, Inc and is the nations very first Black female CEO in the community solar market. Under her leadership, WeSolar is growing quickly, supplying customers across Maryland and the District of Columbia access to budget friendly solar power, regardless of home type, and helping hard-working families decrease month-to-month costs.
What inspired you to begin your business?
I was at a community meeting with 50 Black females organizers who were not invested in the community solar motion. 36% of Black households experience a high energy burden, implying they spend over 6% of their earnings on home energy bills. To be able to use an item that will conserve our community up to 60% on their energy costs is transformative.
Inform us about your company?
WeSolars mission is to bring under-resourced neighborhoods budget friendly access to local neighborhood solar and to assist industrial properties with energy performance. WeSolar released in Baltimore and will expand to other cities in the future. Through WeSolar, electricity customers can buy shared solar from a regional job without needing to set up any devices in their houses. In turn, citizens save hundreds on their electricity bills. In Maryland, lawmakers passed legislation that specifies 50 percent of its electrical power need to originate from renewable resource sources by 2030.
What challenges do you deal with? Why?
To a neighborhood that is already facing so numerous pressing challenges, encouraging them that there is another one simply as crucial is really challenging. I keep in mind trying to describe community solar to my good friends and the discussion rapidly rotating to housing.
Please show us a recent company success story.
An extremely individual success story for me is cultivating a partnership with Maryland United Baptist Missionary Convention, Inc. I grew up in a Baptist church in Brooklyn where my cousin was the pastor, and my mommy was an organizer– neighborhood was sewn into my really being. When I first transferred to Baltimore, the Community Solar Pilot Program was released, and I desired to make sure city locals were receiving the exact same amount of financial investment as the county. It was the church that took me in, and the church that then supported my vision– bringing everything cycle. Renewable resource has actually historically been a middle-class issue since Black communities have had to reside in survival mode, however Reverend Mason and Reverend Dewitt brought me into the circle and connected me with individuals I needed to get in touch with in order to make this partnership effective.
To get more information about WeSolar, visit wesolar.energy
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I was at a community meeting with 50 Black ladies organizers who were not invested in the neighborhood solar movement. To be able to offer an item that will conserve our neighborhood up to 60% on their energy bills is transformative.
WeSolars mission is to bring under-resourced neighborhoods affordable access to local neighborhood solar and to help industrial properties with energy performance. When I first moved to Baltimore, the Community Solar Pilot Program was launched, and I desired to make sure city residents were receiving the exact same amount of investment as the county. Eco-friendly energy has actually historically been a middle-class problem since Black neighborhoods have actually had to live in survival mode, but Reverend Mason and Reverend Dewitt brought me into the circle and linked me with the people I required to link with in order to make this partnership effective.