Episode Summary
In this episode of the Solar Maverick Podcast, Benoy spoke about the proposed community solar legislation in California with Derek Chernow with CCSA, Stephanie Doyle from SEIA, and Steve Campbell from Vote Solar.
Benoy Thanjan
Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy and he is also an advisor for several solar startup companies. He has extensive project origination, development, and financial experience in the renewable energy industry and in the environmental commodities market.
This includes initial site evaluation, permitting, financing, sourcing equipment, and negotiating the long-term energy and environmental commodities off-take agreements. He manages due diligence processes on land, permitting, and utility interconnection and is in charge of financing
and structuring through Note to Proceed (“NTP”) to Commercial Operation Date (“COD”). Benoy composes teams suitable for all project development and construction tasks. He is also involved in project planning and pipeline financial modeling. He has been part of all sides of the
transaction and this allows him to provide unique perspectives and value. Benoy has extensive experience in financial engineering to make solar projects profitable.
Before founding Reneu Energy, he was the SREC Trader in the Project Finance Group for SolarCity which merged with Tesla in 2016. He originated SREC trades with buyers and co-developed their SREC monetization and hedging strategy with the senior management of SolarCity to move into the east coast markets.
Benoy was the Vice President at Vanguard Energy Partners which is a national solar installer where he focused on project finance solutions for commercial scale solar projects. He also worked for Ridgewood Renewable Power, a private equity fund, where he analyzed potential investments in renewable energy projects and worked on maximizing the financial return of the projects in the portfolio. Benoy also worked on the sale of all of the renewable energy projects in Ridgewood’s portfolio.
He was in the Energy Structured Finance practice for Deloitte & Touche and in Financial Advisory Services practice at Ernst & Young. Benoy received his first experience in Finance as an intern at D.E. Shaw & Co., which is a global investment firm with 37 billion dollars in investment capital. He has a MBA in Finance from Rutgers University and a BS in Finance and Economics from the Stern School of Business at New York University. Benoy was an Alumni Scholar at the Stern School of Business.
Derek Chernow
WESTERN REGIONAL DIRECTOR of CCSA(“Coalition for Community Solar Access”)
Derek is a highly accomplished clean energy leader. He previously served as Executive Director of the California Alternative Energy & Advanced Transportation Financing Authority (CAEATFA), where he led all operations for the California agency charged with financing clean energy projects to spur economic development. Before CAEATFA, he spent many years working in the California State Legislature, including in the CA Senate Budget Subcommittee on Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy & Transportation and as a Chief of Staff for multiple members. He also held leadership positions advocating for clean energy and environmental protection including Acting Director at the California Department of Conservation. In his spare time, he serves on the Board of Directors of the Sacramento Tree Foundation.
Stephanie Doyle
She is the California State Affairs Director for SEIA(“Solar Energy Industries Association”). SEIA is the national trade association for the U.S. solar industry. Stephanie was the regulatory Director for California for Vote Solar, Climate Policy Associate for The Nature Conservancy, and the Director of National Partnerships and Outreach for Ciizens’ Climate Lobby, She also has experience as the On Deck Climate Tech Fellow and Fellow at the Clean Energy Leadership Institute.
Steve Campbell
Steve is the Regulatory Director for the West for Vote Solar. Vote Solar is a non-profit policy advocacy organization with the mission of making solar more accessible and affordable across the United States. He worked as Western States Policy Director at Grid Alternatives and Associate Program Manager, Energy Efficiency and Climate Action at Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments.
Stay Connected:
Benoy Thanjan
Email: info@reneuenergy.com
LinkedIn: Benoy Thanjan
Website: https://www.reneuenergy.com
Derek Chernow
Website: https://communitysolaraccess.org/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-chernow-9a358444/
CCSA Summit: https://web.cvent.com/event/4d08858f-5aef-4a10-8340-6111b45325fd/summary
Stephanie Doyle
Website: https://www.seia.org/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieedoyle/
SEIA Events: https://www.seia.org/events
Steve Campbell
Website: https://votesolar.org/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allthink/
Google: California Community Solar CPUC Public Comment
Proceeding No. A.22.05.022
SMP 156: How to develop Solar and Storage on Disturbed Land with AC Power?
SMP 155: Capital Solutions for Real Estate for Solar and Battery Storage with SolaREIT
SMP 154: How Aurora Solar is innovating the residential and commercial sales experience through software?
153: How Sunstone Credit is providing debt financing for an underserved market in solar?
SMP 152: How Anza Renewables is innovating solar module & energy storage procurement?
SMP 151: Proliferation of Flexible Solar in Space
SMP 150: How SunRaise Capital is innovating residential solar financing?
SMP 149: Jigar Shah, Director of the LPO of the DOE, Discusses How the Solar Industry Has to Innovate
SMP 148: How Summit Ridge Energy is dominating the Virginia Community Solar Market?
SMP 147: RE+ Conference Takeaways
SMP 146: How Erthos is revolutionizing Utility Scale Solar Construction?
SMP 145: US Community Solar Market Analysis
SMP 144: Luxpower: Introduces its Innovative Inverter Technology to the US Market
SMP 143: Insights on the US Solar and Storage Market
SMP 142: The Benefits of Local Solar
SMP 141: Unlocking Your Solar Project’s Potential with Operations and Maintenance
SMP 140: Agrivoltaics: One of the Next Frontiers in Solar
SMP 139: Opportunities and Challenges with the PJM Solar Market
SMP 138: North America Solar Manufacturer discusses how they differentiate from Foreign Competition
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