SMP 225: Scaling Quality: How Civic Renewables is Supporting the Next Generation of Local Solar Installers

Episode Overview

In this episode of the Solar Maverick Podcast, I speak with Lee Keshishian, the Founder & CEO of Civic Renewables. We dive into his 18+ year journey in residential solar—from founding Clean Currents to scaling Tesla/SolarCity’s East Coast operations and now building a national network of trusted local solar installers. Lee shares insights on what it takes to grow resilient clean energy businesses and how Civic is raising the bar for solar quality and local impact.

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. 

Leon “Lee” Keshishian

Experienced solar executive and entrepreneur with 18+ years leading growth in clean energy. Founder of Civic Renewables, building a national network of trusted local solar providers with centralized support for operations, procurement, training, and long-term service.

Previously led East Coast operations at SolarCity/Tesla, scaling to 40+ locations and 4,000+ employees. As COO of Palmetto Solar, helped drive 400% growth and partnerships with 50+ local companies. Former CEO of Autosled and co-founder of Clean Currents Solar.

Passionate about empowering local businesses, delivering long-term value to homeowners, and accelerating the energy transition through quality, service, and trust.

 

Stay Connected:

Benoy Thanjan

Email: info@reneuenergy.com 

LinkedIn: Benoy Thanjan

Website: https://www.reneuenergy.com

 

Lee Keshishian

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonjkeshishian/

Website: https://civicrenewables.com