SMP 36: The State of the Project Finance Market for Solar Energy

Jul 9, 2019

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Episode Summary

Li Wang returns to the podcast as co-host for this week’s episode. Li is the Director of Marketing at Reneu Energy, founder of MJ Wang Marketing, and also Benoy’s publicist. The two of them catch up with a chat about branding and marketing practices and then go on to discuss in depth the current state of solar. Also, included are recommended resources for anyone interested in solar energy.

Benoy Thanjan

Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy and he is also an advisor for several solar startup companies. Reneu Energy is a premier international solar energy consulting firm and developer and the company focuses on developing commercial and industrial solar and utility scale solar plus storage projects. The company also sources financing for solar projects and hedges energy and environmental commodities. Reneu Energy has brokered $27 million in environmental commodities transactions.

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. 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 also worked at Vanguard Energy Partners, Ridgewood Renewable Power, and Deloitte & Touche.

Li Wang

A life-long journalist and communications professional, Li Wang was hooked on the news as an intern at the Philadelphia Daily News during the summer of the O.J. trial. He has been a business reporter, arts editor and film critic. He has shifted his focus to digital marketing and creative services. His company, MJ Wang Media, develops brand messaging and identity through website design and content marketing.

Insight from this episode:

The importance of branding and ways Reneu Energy is working to establish their brand identity and recognition.
Why you absolutely must be using video in your marketing efforts.
Podcast sponsorship opportunities.
The state of the solar industry in Q1 including current trends and the implications of recently imposed tariffs on solar.
Detailed explanation of the solar investment tax credit and how to qualify.
Investment incentives for renewable energy relative to fossil fuel incentives.

Quotes from the show:

“If you do create content for your company or brand, video packs a huge punch. not only with engagement you’re actually speaking to an audience literally, but also in search.” Li Wang, Episode #36

“Always remember that YouTube is the #2 search engine behind Google” Li Wang, Episode #36

“If you’re going to put your effort into one thing, and you can and you feel comfortable, I encourage you to do video.” Li Wang, Episode #36

On the value of podcast sponsorships: “One of keys to why our sponsorships are effective is because of the distinct audience that our podcast reaches.” Li Wang, Episode #36

“Solar keeps growing exponentially. We keep seeing the cost of solar going down and the efficiencies of panels increasing.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #36

“What we’re seeing is that solar companies are trying to build as quickly as possible to qualify for this 30% because it’s a huge part of the economics of the project.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #36

“The issue with the incentives going down is that potentially solar might not be as cost effective.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #36

“There was a time when there were a lot of good projects but not a lot of financing.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #36

“A lot of real estate developers are telling me, ‘Hey, we’re developing projects in opportunity zones can we pull solar in it?’” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #36

“The rise of the corporate PPAs has allowed a lot of development of renewable energy.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #36

Resources Mentioned:

Podcast Laundry

Create Your Life Series Podcast

PV Magazine

Renewable Energy World

UtilityDive.com

Book:

Relentless by Tim S. Grover

Sponsors for Reneu Energy Summer Solstice Event

Infiniti Energy Services

Spano Partners