Meghan Wood, Com’18, wants to make getting residential solar and storage as routine as buying a table at IKEA.
“Instead of a construction project that's reserved for homeowners who can afford it, we want it to be accessible to everyone. As electricity prices and outages rise, it’s becoming critical to have resilient, affordable energy,” Wood says, adding that she set out to eliminate solar’s barriers, namely, owning a home, having a new roof, and $20,000 to spend. Raya Power designed a one-size-fits-all solution with a lower entry price and accessible financing.
“This is the Raya Pod,” she says, pointing to one in her backyard in San Francisco, where she followed up her Queen’s degrees with a master’s in business administration and a master’s in sustainable energy at Stanford University. “It’s an all-in-one solar battery pod you can place where you have access to sun. It provides bill savings and resilience in outages for critical appliances like your air conditioning, fridge, and wifi – no permits required.”
As Queen’s marks SDG month in March, Wood’s work stands out among many examples of alumni working towards the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations – particularly SDG 7, “Affordable and Clean Energy: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable energy.”
Raya launched in Puerto Rico, which is home for her business partner, Nicole Gonzalez, who was working at NASA when Hurricane Maria hit. “She thought to herself: 'We can send solar panels to space, but I can’t get them to my family? This is ridiculous’,” Wood recalls.
In the past year, the pair has designed, manufactured, installed and sold pilots after raising $1 million in initial funding.
“Customers are loving them,” Wood says, adding that Raya aims to be the energy company for everyday people.
Wood attributes her passion for climate solutions to her time at Queen’s, particularly during an exchange in Singapore.
“I saw the impacts of climate change,” she says. “There was plastic covering the beaches in Thailand and in New Zealand I saw a glacier we were told to ‘see before it’s gone.’ I thought, ‘What if my kids don’t get to see this incredible nature?’ That was the start of my interest in climate.”
She remembers Queen’s Case Competition Union being pivotal to her path, which took her to Bain & Company, during which time she also started working pro bono with Nature United. Her fiancé, whom she met in Toronto, is a Queen’s Commerce grad, too.
Wood met Gonzalez at a wedding while both were at Stanford. “Someone said, ‘You need to meet because you’re both solar nerds.’” This year, they hope to grow the team, adding 10 to 20 people within two years. And, Wood will eventually bring Raya back home to Canada.
March is SDG Month Canada, a national collaboration that invites universities and colleges to organize workshops, panels, and interactive programming to increase awareness of and engagement with the U.N.’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
