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 pleased to share the very first installment in our “Accelerating Renewables” blog series. Each installment will include market leaders and subjects connected to speeding up an equitable and simply shift to a renewable resource economy. In recognition of National Black Business Month, our August blog is the very first in a series highlighting how Black-owned member business are thriving in the renewable resource sector.
Kristal Hansley is the Founder & & CEO of WeSolar, Inc and is the countrys very first Black female CEO in the neighborhood solar market. Under her leadership, WeSolar is growing quickly, supplying consumers across Maryland and the District of Columbia access to cost effective solar power, regardless of house type, and helping hard-working households lower month-to-month expenditures.
What inspired you to start your company?
I was at a neighborhood conference with 50 Black females organizers who were not invested in the neighborhood solar motion. 36% of Black households experience a high energy burden, meaning they spend over 6% of their earnings on home energy expenses. To be able to provide an item that will conserve our neighborhood up to 60% on their energy expenses is transformative.
Tell us about your company?
WeSolars mission is to bring under-resourced neighborhoods inexpensive access to local neighborhood solar and to assist business residential or commercial properties with energy effectiveness. WeSolar launched in Baltimore and will broaden to other cities in the future. Through WeSolar, electrical energy consumers can acquire shared solar from a regional task without having to install any equipment in their houses. In turn, locals save hundreds on their electrical power costs. In Maryland, lawmakers passed legislation that specifies 50 percent of its electrical power should originate from renewable resource sources by 2030.
What obstacles do you deal with? Why?
To a community that is already dealing with numerous pushing obstacles, convincing them that there is another one simply as important is really difficult. I keep in mind attempting to explain neighborhood solar to my good friends and the discussion rapidly pivoting to housing. The truth of the matter is, institutional bigotry and injustice are larger than we understand, and it drowns our neighborhood. Where Black people are not being bought, we are being asked to focus on continuously for our survival.
Please share with us a current business 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 stitched into my really being. When I first relocated to Baltimore, the Community Solar Pilot Program was launched, and I wanted to make sure city citizens were getting the 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 energy has actually historically been a middle-class problem since Black neighborhoods have needed to reside in survival mode, but Reverend Mason and Reverend Dewitt brought me into the circle and connected me with the individuals I needed to get in touch with in order to make this partnership effective.
To find out more about WeSolar, check out wesolar.energy
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I was at a neighborhood conference with 50 Black females organizers who were not invested in the neighborhood solar motion. To be able to use a product that will save our neighborhood up to 60% on their energy expenses is transformative.
WeSolars objective is to bring under-resourced communities economical access to regional neighborhood solar and to help commercial homes with energy efficiency. When I first moved to Baltimore, the Community Solar Pilot Program was introduced, and I desired to make sure city homeowners were getting the exact same amount of financial investment as the county. Eco-friendly energy has actually traditionally been a middle-class concern because Black neighborhoods have had to live in survival mode, but Reverend Mason and Reverend Dewitt brought me into the circle and linked me with the people I needed to link with in order to make this collaboration effective.