She was underestimated in solar. She used it to her advantage

Martyna Kowalczyk was around 11-years-old the first time she fell asleep in her family’s solar warehouse. It was 2009, and her father had just started a renewable energy company in Poland, back when solar panels were still something of a novelty. The whole family was in it together, hauling equipment, learning the technology, figuring it out. Though Martyna was young, she was excited to be a part of this new family venture and already had a passion for the technology.

"No matter where I saw solar panels as a kid, I would always point them out," she says. "My friends would laugh at me."

Nobody's laughing now.

Kowalczyk is now the CEO of Solartime USA, a company she built from the ground up after moving to Texas from Poland in 2015 and convincing her father to open an American branch of the family business. She's also made a name for herself as the "Solar Girl," a YouTube personality with a growing following of homeowners who trust her honest, no-nonsense take on an industry with a history of some shady dealings. She says she’s never received a single negative review from a homeowner.

But perhaps the most remarkable thing about Kowalczyk's story is what she's had to navigate to get here: a notoriously male-dominated industry that often didn't know what to do with a young woman who knew more about solar than almost everyone in the room.

She turned that into her advantage.

Ask Kowalczyk what it's like being a woman selling solar to homeowners, and she doesn't hesitate. "My sales team takes advantage of it all the time," she said, laughing. "They'll say, 'I want to put Martyna on the phone.' Or 'I want to bring Martyna over so you can meet her.' It genuinely helps when I talk to women."

This tracks with data that the solar industry has been slow to reckon with. Research shows that more often than not, women make financial decisions in American households—between 69% and 90% of the time, depending on various studies. And Nielsen research estimates they'll control 75% of discretionary consumer spending by 2028. 

Studies consistently show that women are more likely than men to prioritize eco-friendly purchases and values-based investing. Yet only 15% of solar adopters who used EnergySage to research and find installers in 2024 identified as women, and site visitor data showed that just 37% of EnergySage users were female during that time. This isn't a quirk—it's a pattern, and it's costing the industry.

Kowalczyk has a theory about why the gap exists, rooted in something her father used to say: "The man is the head of the family, but the woman is the neck—and wherever the neck moves, that's the primary decision maker."

In practice, though, solar companies have historically directed their pitch at the head, not the neck. "We still see that a lot. Most of the customers we talk to are male, but they always go back to making sure their wife is happy and comfortable with the investment."

But especially when men aren’t part of the shopping equation, solo female shoppers can have a frustrating experience—because the sales process, from the door-to-door pitch to the technical brochures to the sales calls dominated by financial jargon, has historically been calibrated specifically for men. 

One such shopper, Emma Johnson, who went solar primarily out of environmental conviction, described feeling like companies "weren't meeting her at her level of knowledge or listening to her." She told EnergySage she couldn't make sense of the brochures they handed her. One installer put her ground-mounted system behind a row of trees despite her objections. "These people were not paying attention," she said.

If Johnson had been a Solartime customer, Kowalczyk would recognize that experience instantly. She's built her entire business model around its opposite: sitting down with both homeowners—whoever they are—and treating every concern as valid. "When you can hear both sides and both concerns," she says, "you get a better outcome for everyone."

The dynamic is shifting, she said. But the industry hasn't fully caught up.

Kowalczyk's path to CEO wasn't a straight line. When she and her father launched Solartime USA in 2016, she was enrolled in college and working as the company's receptionist. By 2017, she'd quit school to go all-in. She was 23 years old.

"I just really wanted to devote myself to this business. I said, 'I want you to be my mentor, Dad.' He said, 'Let's do it.'"

But she'd already been mentored by a decade of living and breathing solar. What Kowalczyk brought to the Texas market wasn't just knowledge; it was a perspective forged in a completely different culture. In Europe, she explained, clean energy marketing centers on environmental values—sustainability, recycling, ecological responsibility. That approach didn't land in Dallas. In its first year, Solartime USA went heavy on "save the planet" messaging. "We hit a wall. People just did not care,” she said.

So they pivoted their advertising, explaining how solar provides energy independence, financial control, and resilience. Despite the switch, Kowalczyk didn’t feel like she was abandoning her advocacy for the planet. "I would tell my dad, ‘People can think this is fully about control and money, but in the background, we're still doing what we love: going green.’"

The lesson stuck. Today, Kowalczyk doesn't just sell solar—she helps homeowners understand what they're actually buying, and whether it's right for them. "I love solar," she said, "but I love solar when it makes financial sense. Solar is not for everyone."

Kowalczyk doesn't dwell on the harder parts of her story, but she doesn't hide them either.

Early in her career, she remembers being in meetings where people would direct questions to her sales manager—a man she had hired and trained—simply because he was older and male. "It takes time to build confidence and to trust in yourself that you know what you're talking about," she said. "I like to say, ‘Fake it till you make it.’ I positioned myself as someone who knows what they're talking about—because I do. If you have a problem with that, I'm sorry, but that's your problem, not mine."

That confidence wasn't handed to her. Research on gender dynamics within the solar industry suggests that panels and rooftop technology are still widely perceived as "masculine domains" compared to other household technologies, with the responsibility for monitoring and managing solar systems typically falling to men—even when women are equally or more invested in the decision. Kowalczyk has lived this reality from both sides: as a female customer-facing professional navigating a male-dominated field, and as a CEO who has had to establish her authority from scratch.

What changed things, she said, wasn't a single breakthrough moment, but rather an accumulation. It took years of showing up, knowing her material, and gradually realizing that her identity wasn't a liability. It was a differentiator.

"There are so many YouTubers and tech educators in solar who are primarily male. I just try to use who I am to my advantage,” she said.

The solar industry has a complicated history when it comes to consumer trust. While plenty of installers, like Solartime, genuinely act in their customers’ best interests, bad actors exist. Those companies often have a transparency problem, and Kowalczyk is one of the loudest voices calling them out.

Consumer complaints about solar installations jumped fivefold between 2021 and 2023, according to Time magazine—a period that coincided with aggressive door-to-door sales tactics, inflated pricing, and a wave of shady contracts that left homeowners worse off than before. It’s a big reason EnergySage exists: to ensure homeowners are educated, can compare options, and don’t feel pressured when going solar, so they can feel confident and supported in their decision. 

Kowalczyk watched as these dishonest companies marred the broader solar industry's reputation and felt sick about it.

"People hated it when I would tell them I was in solar," she recalled. "Because of all the horror stories, dealer fees, bad situations people got into because of salespeople. I figured I needed to do something."

That "something" became her Solar Girl brand on Instagram and YouTube—a scrappy, deeply practical education channel where she breaks down solar contracts, battery storage, net metering changes, and installer red flags with the kind of directness you rarely see from someone whose livelihood depends on selling the product. Her motto for homeowners: “Take your time. Don't sign anything today. And if a company says the price goes up tomorrow, walk away.”

"I almost feel like if you're mad at solar, you should be mad at yourself for not doing the due diligence," she said—then immediately softened it. "But that's exactly why I make the content. Because it's in your best interest as a homeowner to select a highly reputable installer and look up the equipment. This is not a purchase to take lightly."

The approach is working. The five-star review streak on Google is real. And Kowalczyk said homeowners who find her on YouTube often end up calling Solartime USA because they've watched her be honest about the industry's problems. Trust, it turns out, is the best sales strategy.

Ask Martyna Kowalczyk what the future of solar looks like, and she gets animated in a way that makes it clear this was never just a job.

She thinks the industry is entering a weeding-out phase: bad actors, inflated prices, and companies that leaned too heavily on incentive-driven sales tactics are going to struggle. Solar on its own still pencils out financially in most markets, she said, even as the policy landscape shifts.

In Texas, she's seen a massive uptick in battery storage as net metering terms have tightened after the 2021 winter storm, saying eight out of 10 customers who install solar with her now add a battery. The value proposition is about locking in lower energy costs before utility prices climb further.

"People don't call us because of the tax credit," she says. "They call because they have a $500 electric bill and they don't want to pay the utility anymore."

Martyna doesn’t just talk the talk—she walks the walk. "I've had solar on every home I've ever lived in. In Poland. In Wylie. In Garland. I have it on one of my rental properties, and I'm about to put it on another. Solar is so cool."

Turns out, the girl who grew up getting laughed at for pointing at solar panels is the one laughing now: She’s built a lucrative solar company on hard work, relationships, and most importantly, honesty.

You can find Martyna Kowalczyk on YouTube at Solartime with Martyna and on Instagram at @solargirl.dallas.