Solar Maverick Podcast SMP 31: Why Operations & Maintenance is so important for the useful life of the solar project
Episode Summary
Benoy and Amanda discuss the importance of operations & maintenance in the solar industry. Why Amanda started the cooperative? How she ensures that each company in the cooperative is bringing something to the table to elevate the cooperative? And the future of the cooperative in the solar industries and trends she is seeing in solar operations & maintenance.
About our Guest:
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.
Amanda Bybee
Amanda has worked in the solar industry since 2003. Her entrée was promoting renewable energy policy in Austin, TX at Public Citizen, where she served as the coordinator of the Solar Austin Campaign. The campaign worked closely with Austin Energy to establish the first solar rebate program in Texas in 2004. Amanda then went on to work at Meridian Energy Systems, a solar EPC company.
Amanda joined Namasté Solar in January 2006 as an early member of the team. She held numerous roles over her 11 years there, from technical sales & design to business development. While there, she worked to obtain a federal charter for a unique financial institution that funds clean energy products and services: Clean Energy Credit Union (www.cleanenergycu.org). This was only the 17th federal charter issued since 2010, and the first in the state of Colorado for over 30 years. She continues to serve as a volunteer on the Supervisory Committee of the credit union.
In 2016, she helped earn an award from the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative to found the Amicus O&M Cooperative (www.AmicusOM.com). The O&M Cooperative brings together a network of providers across the country to provide coordinated services for geographically distributed portfolios. She now serves as its CEO, and is committed to the mission "to ensure that solar PV fulfills its promise as a responsible and reliable energy source, for generations to come." She obtained a BA in English and French from the University of Texas at Austin, and through solar, has found her "inner engineer."
Insight from this Episode
- What the intention of the cooperative is.
- How Clean Energy CU is helping make solar accessible to everyone.
- What makes the cooperative successful.
- The importance of each role within the cooperative.
- The 4 core values of Amicus O & M Cooperative.
- Benoy’s thoughts on why there have been changes on the investment side of the solar market.
Quotes from the show:
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- On making repairs: “A big part of keeping O&M cost effective is trying to reduce travel time.” Amanda Bybee, Episode #31.
- “When we work together through the cooperative to elevate everyone’s game we all win.” Amanda Bybee, Episode #31
- “The name of the game is efficiency” Amanda Bybee, Episode #31.
- “The real heros of O&M are the technicians” Amanda Bybee, Episode #31.
- “O&M and solar is relatively new, we don’t have a lot of experience of long life assets” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #31.
- On working with installers and asset owners: “At the end of the day those services are being sold to the asset owner” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #31.
- About discussing O&M with clients ‘It’s really about adding value to our client” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #31.
- On O&M price differences: “People really didn’t understand what the true cost was.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #31.
- Why there are lower ROIs now: “We’ve seen a lot of investors come into the market that have a lower investment requirement.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #31.
Resources
Reneu Energy Summer Solstice Party
Benoy Thanjan
info@reneuenergy.com
Amanda Bybee
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandabybee
Tags: solar energy, renewable energy, reneu energy, Benoy Thanjan, Operations & Maintenance, Namaste, Amicus O&M Cooperative, Clean Energy CU, quality, elevate