Episode Summary
In this episode of the Solar Maverick Podcast, Benoy speaks with Gregory Wetstone who is the President and CEO of American Council on Renewable Energy (“ACORE”). Greg gives an update on the Inflation Reduction Act(“IRA”) and talks about current policy issues in renewables. He also talks about how ACORE is leading as a trade organization in the equitable transition of renewables with the Accelerate Program and partnership with the National Urban League.
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 Environmental Commodities 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 Tesla 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.
Gregory Wetstone
Gregory Wetstone is President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), a national nonprofit organization that unites finance, policy and technology to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy. Since assuming this role in January of 2016, he has led the way to dramatic improvements in ACORE’s organizational health, prominence and effectiveness in pursuit of its mission. Greg oversees ACORE’s strategic planning and core activities, including government affairs, communications, research and analysis, executive programs, market expansion priorities, signature events and fundraising.
Prior to joining ACORE, Greg served as Vice President for Terra-Gen Power LLC, a renewable energy company with utility-scale wind, solar and geothermal energy facilities. Prior to his six-year term with Terra-Gen, he served as Senior Director for Government and Public Affairs at the American Wind Energy Association and Director of Programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where he founded the legislative program. Earlier in his career, Greg was Senior Counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and played an important role in crafting a number of important laws, including the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Prior to joining the Committee staff, Greg was Director of the Air and Water Pollution Program at the Environmental Law Institute. Greg is a forceful advocate for the policies and financial structures essential to renewable energy growth, and has been widely published and quoted on energy and environmental issues over the span of his career. He has a Juris Doctor degree from the Duke University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Florida State University.Stay Connected:
Benoy Thanjan
Email: info@reneuenergy.com
Website: https://www.reneuenergy.com
To Learn More about ACORE:
https://acore.org/
ACORE Finance Forum
June 7-8, 2023 in New York
https://acorefinanceforum.org/
ACORE Accelerate Program
https://acore.org/accelerate/
SMP 139: Opportunities and Challenges with the PJM Solar Market
SMP 138: North America Solar Manufacturer discusses how they differentiate from Foreign Competition
SMP 137: Discussion on Transferability Guidance for the Inflation Reduction Act with Adam from Foley & Lardner
SMP 136: Accelerating The Adoption Of Renewable Energy In The Pacific Islands
SMP 135: A Perfect Fit-Solar and Bitcoin
SMP 134: 2023 Solar Predictions
SMP 132: Update on the Great Progress of Let’s Share The Sun Foundation
SMP 131: How Technology and Software are innovating the Solar Industry?
SMP 130: A Pilot Episode for a New Podcast from Spencer and Benoy where they speak about topics of interest
SMP 129: Learn About a Great Non-Profit Called Let’s Share the Sun Foundation
SMP 128: How Enerflo is revolutionizing the residential sales process?
SMP 127: An Investor differentiates itself by assisting with project development.
SMP 126: Benoy Thanjan discusses what the Australian Solar Market can learn from the US Solar Market
SMP 125: Solar Expert Discusses Bitcoin and the Great Opportunity for Solar!
SMP 124: Landgate is innovating how solar developers and investors acquire land for solar projects
SMP 123: How Extensible Energy is changing how Solar Sales sells to Commercial Customers?
SMP 122: The author of the Freeing Energy Book Discusses How Local-Scale Solar and Batteries are Disrupting the Energy Industry!
SMP 121: DroneBase inspects solar projects at scale to increase energy output and mitigate risk.
SMP 120: Developer/Investor discusses scaling solar development and how to determine a new solar market
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