WeSolar

WeSolar founded in 2020 and based in Baltimore, has a mission to introduce local community solar to under-resourced communities. To create access to community solar, WeSolar connects individuals with existing solar energy providers. In this way, a household can replace a portion of its solar power without installing solar panels or switching utility providers. This allows access for individuals who would otherwise be unable to participate in and support the clean energy transition, even individuals that may live in apartments, co-ops, condos, or townhomes. Essentially, WeSolar is extending the opportunity of solar credits to those that never had this opportunity before – those that could benefit the most. Overall, WeSolar is committed to involving low-income communities and communities of color in the shift to renewable energy; “WeSolar is power of the people, for the people, and by the people.”

Kristal Hansley

Kristal Hansley, Founder and CEO

Kristal  Hansley is an entrepreneur and advocate for leveraging solar power to help hard-working families reduce their expenses. As a child growing up in Brooklyn, NY, Kristal has been passionate about serving the community and standing up for the rights of others. 

She first made her mark as the 2010 Howard University Legislative Fellow, which led to her tenure in the U.S. Senate on the staff of Majority Leader Harry Reid. In addition to serving as Program Manager for the Senate Democratic Diversity Initiative, she was Majority Leader Reid‘s liaison to local, state, and federal officials and national organizations. Kristal continued her work empowering constituents with legislative support favorable to average citizens by heading up Community Affairs policy in the office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. As Director of Government and Community Relations for Neighborhood Sun, a regional solar company in Maryland, Kristal worked with solar energy developers and city leadership to help thousands of low-to-moderate-income families save on their utility bills. True to her entrepreneurial spirit, Kristal launched WeSolar in 2020 to leverage her knowledge in the field and has blazed a trail as the nation‘s first African-American woman CEO in the community solar industry.

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