Every Watt-Hour Tells A Story: Driving transformation through Black church communities
What if the answer to the climate crisis wasn’t more solar panels, more wind farms, more nuclear, but instead, was something far simpler?
Realizing how few people of color were working in clean energy while studying for his PhD at Stanford University, Anthony Kinslow II set out to democratize decarbonization by building clean energy hubs in Black church communities.
WattCarbon speaks to the Gemini Energy founder about how community anchors can help accelerate the energy transition, the power of ‘seeding’ solar panels in a community, and the funding opportunities for corporate clean energy buyers to help scale these projects with WattCarbon.
This article is part of WattCarbon’s Every Watt-Hour Tells A Story series, spotlighting how WattCarbon partners are deploying distributed clean energy to achieve climate impact, here and now.
The big idea
What if the answer to the climate crisis wasn’t more solar panels, more wind farms, more nuclear, but instead, was something far simpler?
What if the answer was people?
Giving power to people to make their own decisions about their energy supply. Because who better to advocate for their own needs, than the communities themselves?
The a-ha moment
Back in 2016 Anthony Kinslow II was studying for his PhD at Stanford University when he had his a-ha moment: he noticed how few people of color were working in clean energy, which was in direct conflict to his experience that people of color care more about the environment.
The clean energy transition cannot become another form of economic discrimination. This is about building up a new workforce, financial benefits, independence from rate hikes, the health benefits of clean energy, keeping it within the community and giving the profits back to the community.
“It’s not just about clean energy – it’s so much more abundant than that. So much more is powered by clean energy than just watts,” says Kinslow.
The solution
Realizing that inclusivity and diversity needed to be at the forefront of a just energy transition, Kinslow founded Gemini Energy. His mission was to democratize decarbonization; helping communities to fund, install and manage their own community-owned “clean energy hubs” – microgrid installations that include solar panels.
But Anthony didn’t want to do this just anywhere. He wanted to start in his own community – and then roll this out across communities within the Black church.
Gemini primarily works with Black churches, a fitting starting point, Kinslow says, because of their long history of leading transformational change.
“The Black church historically is a critical piece to any type of transition in the Black community,” Kinslow says. “I know from personal experience, Black churches are a hub for talent, social improvements and economic empowerment.”
What is a clean energy hub?
A Clean Energy Hub is a microgrid installation that includes solar power, energy storage, and bi-directional electric vehicle charging stations, along with environmental education and workforce development programs. This can expand to things like agrivoltaics, which allows the use of land for both agriculture and solar photovoltaic energy generation, powering food gardens and community kitchens.
The hub is totally owned by the community, opening up opportunities to generate revenue from the charging stations. The value to the grid will not just be the power, but the ability to pull that power at times that are most needed (i.e. load control and demand response).
Delivering the just energy transition, church by church
In collaboration with Green The Church and Green Power Ventures, Gemini has joined to form Green The Church Renewable Energy Development (GTC RED) to "develop revenue-generating microgrids." This includes rooftop solar and other distributed energy resources, for small and midsize churches across the States. Kinslow says these churches are often based in disadvantaged communities which will be left behind in the energy transition if not redressed.
In addition to this, Gemini creates software to complete the feasibility study for the hubs, in partnership with local workforce development organizations to train locals to maintain their hubs.
By giving communities full ownership of the infrastructure and equipment, plus training them in how to look after it, Kinslow believes that true energy independence can be achieved. “Anybody can learn to do it,” he says.
‘Seeding’ the benefits of clean energy
Not only are community-owned clean energy projects better for people; they are proven to accelerate the clean energy transition.
‘Seeding’ is the idea that when you put solar on one roof, the adoption rate in that neighborhood explodes. It’s a form of social normalization. When solar panels are a normal sight for someone to see, it’s less of a jump to buy it yourself.
Black churches are community anchors, so transforming them into clean energy hubs is particularly impactful as a seeding strategy. This seeding also takes place on a national level; the Black church community is very tight knit, spreading word fast to neighboring churches across the country to inspire more folks to say “yes”.
As Kinslow says, “churches are the seed to accelerate transformation in their community.”
Green the Church Founder and CEO, Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll agrees, sharing that “People are listening. Once you do it in one region with one bishop they are telling the story and other people are listening because it’s a connected church. We have a culture changing vehicle. The atmosphere is already there for that cultural exchange; within the Bible of the Black church.”
The growing desire for community-owned clean energy
And it’s not just people on the ground loving it, Church leadership across the board are really excited about the idea, too, shares Kinslow. Community-owned clean energy aligns with their mission and purpose within the community – which is for the betterment of people and parish.
Kinslow tells us, “the church is not just about saving souls; there’s a responsibility to also improve the quality of life for their community and congregations, directly and indirectly. But this is limited by money and volunteers available.”
Carroll agrees, sharing the importance of these buildings as community anchors, and how excited communities are about leveling up these hubs, making money, growing plants, charging cars; the benefits are endless. “These buildings are what we have. They are in the path of progress. We are all excited about the potential. We are all aware and excited about clean energy. Pollution is making people sick in the cities, asthma, diabetes, and airborne pathogens. To do something positive and hand it down, is very exciting.”
The goal?
Gemini is setting out to convert 2,000 churches a year across 20 states into clean energy hubs. While this sounds like a lot, demand is not the concern.
Kinslow tells us, “we could easily do 5,000 churches a year, structurally. The issue is not ‘the how’. The issue is actually the money to pay for it.”
Carroll agrees, “It’s the funding and the knowledge and the technical assistance is the overwhelming part. We don’t have a lot of grant writers in the congregation.”
That’s where clean energy buyers come in
Companies have a huge opportunity to fund these locally-run, locally-owned clean energy projects. With the option to choose your state, companies can come in to partner with communities that otherwise would not have the upfront capital to make these projects a reality.
And with the financial burden of some of these community anchor sites growing, the need for locally-owned, clean energy solutions has never been more urgent. “I have some churches in Georgia who are paying $20,000 a month for energy costs. We could really turn the dial on this,” Carroll tells us.
As a partner, you provide the cash, and the community controls every other aspect; ensuring that the solution is built by the people, for the people. Because clean energy is for everyone.
Get involved!
Interested in learning more? Reach out to WattCarbon info@wattcarbon.com to discuss vPPA opportunities.