Q&A: Diversifying Access to Clean Energy with Community Solar | Article

Transitioning households to renewable energy will require massive investments in rooftop solar. However, for the 36 percent of people in the United States who rent their home or apartment, or for people whose roofs do not get enough sunlight or are not the right size, rooftop solar is not an option.

One popular and growing alternative is community solar. These projects are large arrays of solar panels that can be built on cheap, sunny plots of land by a utility or developer. Customers can sign up to receive this renewable power and, ideally, have the bill integrated into an existing account with their electric utility. Switching to community solar can often help customers save on their electric bills, which is especially important for Black, Hispanic, and Native American households that on average spend a larger portion of their income on electricity each month compared to white households.

Kristal Hansley. Photo Credit: WeSolar

EESI spoke with Kristal Hansley, the founder and CEO of WeSolar, a community solar company launched on Juneteenth 2020 that aims to bring under-resourced communities affordable access to local community solar. Hansley is the first Black woman CEO in the community solar industry and comes from a background in community organizing and legislative support, including in the office of Del. Eleanor Homes Norton (D-D.C.). In this interview, she discusses the challenges of implementing community solar, the many benefits it can bring, and what it has been like to be the first Black woman leader in this industry.

EESI: How is community solar implemented at WeSolar?

Hansley: WeSolar has about 10 megawatts of contracts in our pipeline for 2022. We will be operating in the jurisdictions of D.C., Maryland, and Illinois. Our small contracts up to this point have been aggregated in Maryland, where we were the subscriber organization. The subscriber organization manages all the small accounts that are receiving credits directly on a utility bill for the community solar developer. We just landed our first development contract with a large institution in Maryland, where we will be taking more of a leadership role in the community solar space by actually developing, building, operating, and owning the solar farm as well as doing the customer management and acquisition.

EESI: Are you finding that the demand for community solar is high or do you have to do a lot of education and outreach to bring this knowledge to people?

Hansley: When we launched WeSolar, I was doing grassroots campaigns in cities like Baltimore and D.C. and spreading this knowledge on a micro level, but the reality is that it is a heavy burden for a startup. A lot of players in this space are struggling with acquiring those customers and how to explain community solar.

It is challenging because there is no national communication or language around community solar. Every state and even some local jurisdictions within those states are doing different things. Let’s use Maryland, for example. You have some counties in Maryland that are super progressive and are champions of community solar. They have put out official documents, one-pagers, and mailers, and they had the official program highlighted on their county website. But you have other jurisdictions that do not do any outreach or have any official language on their website referring to the program. In those communities, you do not really have an authority to point to so potential subscribers know that this is a legitimate program.

There needs to be real money and initiatives that support organizations on the ground that are doing the work because they are the ones who actually have the ears to the stakeholders and to the community members. We are teaching something brand new within a community that has been targeted and preyed upon by previous energy players. There is a lot of trauma and bad experiences already and a bad taste in folks' mouths as it relates to learning or adjusting their buying habits for energy or energy-efficiency products. We need strategic, uniform communications for all states that will bring everything together.

EESI: WeSolar works to bring affordable community solar access to under-resourced communities. What are the energy burdens affecting the communities you work with? How do you work with communities?

Hansley: Community solar does not eliminate energy poverty, but how we can help curtail that is by giving direct savings to households that are suffering. When you look at under-resourced communities, they already have a higher cost for energy, whether it is because of the lack of weatherization, the lack of cost-saving appliances, or older furnaces and window AC units. That makes them run up their gas or electric bills.

The community solar projects that are operated and developed by my WeSolar team, which is majority Black- and women- and minority-owned, have that inclusion and representation that is very much needed. We bring the cultural competency, along with the messaging, which is a part of why people actually are like “Oh, I love that mission.” They see me in the grocery store, they see me at community meetings. When you have that representation, and you already have that stamp of expertise, and they see you within that space, your project is more likely to have the backing of the community.

I would say there is a revolution that is happening that started from Freedom Summer—which is what I have been calling it—during the heart of the Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd. You had this movement of supporting Black-owned businesses and communities that are creating impact and social and economic equity. And when you look at community solar, it deals with that on five prongs: you are offsetting your carbon footprint; you are supporting a Black-owned minority business in an under-represented community; you are creating green jobs in zip codes that really need those green jobs; you are bridging that gap of the just transition where a lot of folks are feeling like they are being left out; and you are lowering a barrier to entry for community members with the benefits of teaching, educating, representation, and jobs. When you have that, it is a formula for success.

EESI: You are the first Black woman CEO in the community solar industry. What has it been like for you to be a leader in this space over the past two years?

Hansley: I think launching on Juneteenth, in the middle of a societal reckoning, there was recognition that there needs to be more representation across all industries. The Solar Energy Industries Association reported that among solar industry executives, 88 percent are white and 80 percent are men, and that is replicated and represented on their boards. I am a new Board of Directors member for the American Council on Renewable Energy, and I am also a new member of the National Community Solar Partnership. When you look at those groups, it represents this push and call to action to increase minority representation on boards.

My personal experience is twofold. On one hand, launching when we did happened to be a time when there was a huge push for Black-owned businesses. At the same time, there was also this big push for renewable energy sources. There was a welcoming from the sector where my colleagues picked up the phone and sent emails, and legislators and ambassadors from across the world reached out and sent a note saying, “We like what you are doing” or, “Give me a call,” wanting me to sit on their panels.

On the other hand, I am still trying to raise money. I still need money to operate and raise my own impact funding for my operations. So far, small community investors have come together to rally around WeSolar. My friends and family, minority, non-accredited investors in Brooklyn, gave money—they believe in me, which is a part of the secret sauce. We are community-financed, local-financed, and family-financed, which resonates with the messaging for the community as far as how we are able to attract customers. Even with community solar growing rapidly, I still need funding.

The camaraderie and the symbols of the board seats, the programming, and the speaking engagements are a warm welcome. But as it relates to contracting, it is still hard to compete with some of the larger companies and raising money is still difficult.

EESI: How are you hoping that WeSolar will continue to grow and thrive?

Hansley: I have young girls, young Black boys calling me saying, “Oh, my God, I saw you and what you're doing is great. I didn't know this was something that I could do. I want to do that.” This young woman once called me crying, saying, “I read your article on Black Enterprise. I'm a Black solar installer. I told my mom I’m speaking with you.” I was like, whoa, this is bigger than me. When I have adversity, I think about that call from that young solar installer and how it resonated with her to see my company paving the way for future generations and how we are making sure that the local community is a part of the transition to renewables. WeSolar is leading the path in that way. And we just want to continue to grow.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Interview by: Emma Johnson