Solar Maverick Podcast

Benoy Thanjan

The Solar Maverick Podcast is the insiders guide to where the solar and energy markets meet entrepreneurship and trailblazing. Hosted by Benoy Thanjan - a serial entrepreneur and founder of Reneu Energy

Episodes

Mentioned books

Oct 8, 2019 • 45min

SMP 45: Productivity Tips and Entrepreneurial Advice from the CEO and Founder of the Number 1 Millennial Platform Called Mogul

Episode Summary In this episode, Benoy interviews Tiffany Pham, the Founder and CEO of Mogul. Tiffany describes how she runs her business successfully from the inside out, and how she’s able to handle the stress that comes with it. She discusses her key company values and her main strategies for maximum productivity and efficiency. Benoy Thanjan Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy, as well as 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, as well as utility scale solar plus storage projects. The company also sources financing for solar projects and hedges both energy and environmental commodities. Reneu Energy has brokered $27 million in environmental commodity 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. Tiffany Pham Tiffany Pham is the Founder and CEO of Mogul, a global platform and mobile app that provides tools to individuals and organizations, to achieve optimal productivity and growth. Disrupting the $30 billion productivity tech market, Mogul provides an ecosystem, including their Mogul app & platform, that enables top diverse talent to reach their goals and realize their full potential. Mogul then partners with top workplaces worldwide to attract and advance their top diverse talent — from rising talent to the most senior women worldwide — through their technology products. With the revenue they earn, Mogul provides free educational resources to women in need through international partners such as the United Nations. Tiffany Pham is the author of several books including You Are a Mogul: How to Do the Impossible, Do It Yourself, and Do It Now, and Girl Mogul: Dream it. Do it. Change the World. In Girl Mogul, she speaks directly to teens and young adults, sharing insights from her own life as well from the lives of the most incredible and inspiring women on Mogul. Tiffany Pham has proven that with the right attitude, the right people, and the right vision, there’s nothing girls can’t do. Insights from this episode: Strategies to being productive and efficient How to stay in the present How to manage your time Strategies to finding future talent and consumers How to have a healthy company environment How to use Dale Carnegie’s advice Quotes from the show: “If you’re not familiar with Mogul, Mogul is a global platform reaching millions of women across 196 countries and 30,470 cities, disrupting the $30 billion productivity technology market. Mogul is enabling users world-wide to achieve their goals and realize their full potential.” – Benoy Thanjan, Episode #45 “I did get inspired to attend Yale and Harvard Business School from watching movies. As an immigrant, here in the U.S. I couldn’t help but be influenced by movies, because that’s how I ended up learning English when I was younger. I watched movies and watched t.v. shows, listened to the radio, and soon I would have been listening to podcasts, had I been at this time growing up.” – Tiffany Pham, Episode #45 “As a B to B software company, we partner with other companies to create incredible technology that they can subsequently license in order to attract, and retain, and advance the talent from within our ecosystem into their workplaces as well. And as a result, increase their diverse workforce by 74.4% per year on average, and ultimately create a more equal work force.” – Tiffany Pham, Episode #45 “Despite all the big impact that Mogul is having now, it all started initially with one person. My grandmother. She was this big inspiration for me. Such a role model, such an amazing maverick of her time. She ran newspapers across Asia. She ran other businesses that always ultimately provided others in need with information and opportunities.” – Tiffany Pham, Episode #45 “On October 15th, there will be a refresh across the ecosystem, across our app, across our web and mobile app platform, to unify it all; so as, to be cohesive across every part of our ecosystem, so that you can access all your to-do’s, all your goals, no matter which channel you’re on, across our web, mobile web, or the app.” – Tiffany Pham, Episode #45 “[The] final key thing is staying present in the moment, and over-delivering on that moment. In any moment that I’m in, I’m concerned on over-delivering on that moment alone. I do not think back about that past moment. I do not think about what’s going to happen next.” – Tiffany Pham, Episode #45 “The biggest book that had an impact on me was How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. And my dad actually gave it to me, when I was seventeen years old, because I [was] actually running division one track on a track scholarship, and then I got a serious knee injury. Where basically, I didn’t have that opportunity anymore. But that book really helped me as far as setting myself up for success.” – Benoy Thanjan, Episode #45 “Talent today is different than talent has ever been before in previous generations. Talent today, Millennials, Gen Z, look at a company to really understand: what is its social impact? What are they doing in terms of diversity and inclusion? What are they doing in terms of work-life integration and learning development? They care so much about these four and more aspects that that’s ultimately how a company can find its future talent and its future consumers.” – Tiffany Pham, Episode #45 Resources Mentioned: You can: Download the Mogul App Read You Are Mogul and Girl Mogul by Tiffany Pham Buy a ticket to the Mogul X Conference Read How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie Stay Connected: Benoy Thanjan Email: info@reneuenergy.com LinkedIn: @bthanjan Website: https://www.reneuenergy.com Tiffany Pham Instagram: @tifftpham @onmogul Twitter: @tifftpham @onmogul LinkedIn: @onmogul Facebook: @tiffanypham @onmogul Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on itunes and Podbean

Sep 3, 2019 • 26min

SMP 44: Community Solar 201

SMP 44: Community Solar 201 Episode Summary In this episode, Benoy and Suzanne talk about community solar and how it’s one of the fastest-growing areas of solar. They discuss the benefits and trends of community solar, and they go into the four different business models through which community solar projects get done. They also discuss legislation to keep the Investment Tax Credit at 30%. Benoy Thanjan Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy, as well as 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, as well as utility-scale solar plus storage projects. The company also sources financing for solar projects and hedges both energy and environmental commodities. Reneu Energy has brokered $27 million in environmental commodity 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. Suzanne Waters Suzanne Waters is the Vice President of Business Development at Reneu Energy. She is an experienced solar professional with a broad knowledge of the industry, including project development administration, marketing best practices, financial strategy, and team leadership. Before joining Reneu Energy, Suzanne worked as the Business Development Manager and Proposal Team Leader at Vanguard Energy Partners, a national solar developer, and their affiliate firm, Vanguard Energy Capital. She oversaw proposal development and contract execution. Additionally, she collaborated on structured finance for large scale, multimillion-dollar projects. Insight from this episode: Strategies to understanding community solar trends Secrets to community solar business models How to make community solar accessible to LMI customers Strategies on federal incentives for solar Strategies to keeping the Investment Tax Credit at 30 percent Quotes from the show: “Obviously the question you’re all asking, if you’re listening to this episode is ‘what is community solar?’... According to SEIA community solar is a situation where a center solar array is built either by utility, municipality, or some other third party owner.” – Suzanne Waters, Episode #44 “Today many American households and businesses don’t have access to solar because they rent, live in multi-tenant buildings, have roofs that are unable to host a solar system, or experience some other type of mitigating factor.” – Suzanne Waters, quoting from SEIA Episode #44 “Community solar expands access to solar for all, including, in particular, low to moderate-income customers most impacted by a lack of access, all while building a stronger distributed and more resilient electric grid.” – Suzanne Waters, quoting from SEIA Episode #44 “So what we’re finding is that financing communities are slowly getting more comfortable in having customers that are 100% residential. Where there’s no long-term contract. Where there’s no penalty if the customer opts out.” - Benoy Thanjan Episode #44 “So right now, what the investment tax credit is, it’s a credit on your taxes for 30% of the cost of the [solar] system. There’s actually a step down over the next couple of years, so till the end of 2019 it’s 30%, come 2020 it will be 26%, in 2021 it’s a 22% credit, and then in 2022 it’s 10%. – Suzanne Waters Episode #44 “If you want to take advantage of the 30% tax credit you have to have 5% of the [community solar] project procured by the end of 2019. And the biggest thing we see is that people will buy and secure the panels for their project.” – Suzanne Waters Episode #44 “The most common [business model for community projects] is a Special Purpose Entity, which is the SPE model… In this approach individuals or companies join in a business enterprise to develop a community solar project… Organizations may take advantage of incentives and tax credits that are available, that are unavailable to utilities.” - Benoy Thanjan Episode #44 Resources Mentioned: For more information on community solar: Listen to Episode #23: Community Solar 101 Listen to Episode #19: Customer Acquisition and Billing in Community Solar Listen to Episode #42: How Solar Technology Is Changing the World! Benoy referred to the eBook titled “Community Solar: What You Need To Know” created by Standard Solar. The link to the eBook is below. https://www.standardsolar.com/standard-solar-releases-ebook-offering-critical-insight-executing-successful-community-solar Stay Connected: Benoy Thanjan info@reneuenergy.com LinkedIn.com/bthanjan www.reneuenergy.com Suzanne Waters suzanne@reneuenergy.com www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-waters-01bb6077/ www.reneuenergy.com Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on itunes and Podbean

Aug 28, 2019 • 28min

SMP 43: 2019 Energy Storage Trends

SMP 43: 2019 Energy Storage Trends Episode Summary In this episode, Benoy and Li talk about energy storage and how it’s a huge game changer. They go into the many benefits and trends in energy storage. They also discuss legislation to keep the Investment Tax Credit at 30%. Benoy Thanjan Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy, as well as 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, as well as utility scale solar plus storage projects. The company also sources financing for solar projects and hedges both energy and environmental commodities. Reneu Energy has brokered $27 million in environmental commodity 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 Li Wang is a life-long journalist and communications professional. He worked as an intern for the Philadelphia Daily News, during the summer of the O.J. trial, and has since had some fascinating jobs, from being a business reporter, to an arts editor, to a film critic. He has since shifted his focus to digital marketing and creative services, and now his company, MJ Wang Media, develops brand messaging and identity through website design and content marketing. Insight from this episode: Discuss energy storage trends Discussion on federal incentives for solar Potential Extension of Investment Tax Credit at 30 percent How to control your ego Quotes from the show: “So prices are going down, capacity and efficiency is increasing. So has that recent combination of factors, sort of accelerated the advancement of [energy] storage?” - Li Wang Episode #43 “Definitely!” - Benoy Thanjan Episode #43 “I guess the best way to look at [energy storage] is like landlines and cellphones. You know, you need the infrastructure with the landline, and then basically what energy storage allows is you can be decentralized vs. having a central network and connecting it.” - Benoy Thanjan Episode #43 “You know we are seeing more blackouts. If anyone was in New York three weeks ago on a Saturday, from midtown to… on the west side, there was a power outage… and you would think ‘wow 2019. How is that kinda still happening?’”- Benoy Thanjan Episode #43 “Energy storage is a great way to help with bringing energy back into the grid. It’s a lot faster for energy to come from an energy storage unit that having a peak or natural gas plant.” - Benoy Thanjan Episode #43 “I think one thing that I didn’t realize about the Tesla [electric car] is it’s also performance wise and safety wise so incredible too. You know, one of the features in a crash, it has a lot of capacity to absorb damage… so when I shop for cars, you know I have young kids, so I’m thinking safety. So that hugely impresses me.” – Li Wang Episode #43 “It’s been exciting actually what happened in the past few days. The House and Senate introduced legislation for a 5-year extension of the solar investment tax credit… you know, please reach out to your representative and lawmakers to pass this critical legislation.” - Benoy Thanjan Episode #43 “So [energy storage] is huge for, you know, countries that don’t have already electricity infrastructure. You know, particularly in emerging countries, and then obviously in the U.S. we haven’t upgraded the transmission and distribution grid in a long time.” - Benoy Thanjan Episode #43 Resources Mentioned: Gary Vaynerchuk, Youtube Channel Featured Book: Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday Featured Quote: “Since 2005, when ITC was first passed by the Republican led congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush. The ITC has created hundreds of thousands of jobs. Sparked more than $40 billion in pride investment and helped solar grow by more than 10,000 percent.” – Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of Solar Energy Industry Association Featured Link: Benoy spoke about the Energy Storage Midyear Snapshot by Nikola Power https://nikolapower.com/blog/2019/7/1/energy-storage-midyear-snapshot Stay Connected: Benoy Thanjan info@reneuenergy.com LinkedIn.com/bthanjan Facebook: Reneu Energy www.reneuenergy.com Li Wang MJWangMedia.com Instagram: @liwang22 Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on itunes and Podbean

Aug 21, 2019 • 1h 11min

SMP 42: Live Event - How Solar Technology is Changing the World!

Episode Summary: Led by Suzanne Waters, VP of Business Development at Reneu Energy, Benoy Thanjan joins three other solar industry leaders on a panel called How Solar Technology is Changing the World hosted by Reneu Energy and JCTech Meetup. The panel discusses solar energy, how it’s affecting us, what the future looks like, and how it’s impacting Jersey City. Coming from different sectors, each panelist offers their unique knowledge base to create a thorough picture of the field. Topics include industry growth, incentives, solar energy careers, obstacles & threats, community solar projects, and more. About the Guests: Suzanne Waters: Suzanne Waters is the Vice President of Business Development at Reneu Energy. She is an experienced solar professional with a broad knowledge of the industry, including project development administration, marketing best practices, financial strategy, and team leadership. Before joining Reneu Energy, Suzanne worked as the Business Development Manager and Proposal Team Leader at Vanguard Energy Partners, a national solar developer, and their affiliate firm, Vanguard Energy Capital. She oversaw proposal development and contract execution. Additionally, she collaborated on structured finance for large scale, multimillion dollar projects. Steve Schwerd: Steve Schwerd is the owner of Schwerd Consulting, LLC. Schwerd Consulting is dedicated to design, engineering, representation, and support in all areas of solar photovoltaics. He has nearly 30 years in Consulting Engineering and an extensive background in Electrical Engineering. He became involved in renewable energy and design in 2008 and formed Schwerd Consulting in 2014 to allow for 100% dedication to the solar sector. Juan Truyol: Juan Truyol works as a Project Estimator at Strata Solar, LLC. He is an experienced estimator with a background in estimating, procurement, and a demonstrated history working in civil construction as well as the renewables and environment industry. Truyol earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering and M.S in Construction Infrastructure and Management from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He’s skilled in construction engineering, project estimation, construction, and scheduling. Chris Grablutz: Chris Grablutz is the Director of Business Development at PV Pros, Inc. He entered the solar industry in 2010 and has experience in engineering, project management, and operations. Grablutz joined PV Pros in 2017 and assists clients with owner’s engineering, testing, maintenance, and repair solutions. He’s passionate about solar energy and views his career as an exciting chain of challenges that continue to prevail. Benoy Thanjan: Benoy Thanjan, Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy, advises several solar startup companies about investment and development. Reneu Energy is a premier international solar energy consulting firm and developer. The company focuses on developing commercial, industrial, and utility scale solar, plus storage projects. Additionally, the company sources financing for solar projects and hedges energy and environmental commodities. Reneu Energy has brokered $27 million in environmental commodities transactions. Insights from Episode: What technology goes into solar energy Why building owners and land owners should use solar energy The incentives and benefits of using solar energy How solar energy has changed in the last 10 years and where it will be in 30 years How to enter the solar energy field as a career The downsides and threats to solar energy Resources to learn more about solar energy What community solar is and how people can benefit from it How solar panels are recycled and reused Quotes from the Show: When asked about the technology that goes into solar energy… “In terms of technology, really just capturing data, having it, knowing how to sort it, and then knowing how to use it and evolve from it in the future is a tremendous resource for operations and maintenance of PV systems.” Chris Grablutz, Episode #42 Why should building/land owners look into going solar? “Building owners should definitely look into solar in New Jersey, it’s a way of saving money and going green. There’s green incentives for solar energy. There’s the 30% investment tax credit. There’s also solar depreciation.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #42 “Landowners should look at (solar energy) because you could potentially have a solar field and could receive rent or someone could buy land as they develop a project.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #42 What advice would you give to people looking to break into the solar industry? “The industry is great, so if you’re thinking about it, my first suggestion would be- do it. It’s a great industry, you’ll find many great people.” Chris Grablutz, Episode #42 “Our industry the cost goes down every year and other industries go up- steel, copper, aluminum. Solar goes down, so it will be the cheapest, most cost effective form of energy in the future.” Juan Truyol, Episode #42 “With energy storage, with policies continuing to drive the proliferation of solar, what it means for the benefit of the environment is fossil fuel plants will be shut down in large scales. Even PSEG recently announced their goal is by 2046, they will have no fossil fuel plants except for two of the newest natural gas plants.” ” Steve Schwerd, Episode #42 “Do not feel intimidated to come into the solar industry. We were all somewhat hesitant in the beginning and it turned out ok. No, for real, it’s not intimidating and there’s a lot of good people. There’s ups and downs like any industry, but overall 70/30, it’s good people wanting to teach you, mentor, and just have more cool people to work with ultimately.” Juan Truyol, Episode #42 Stay Connected: Benoy Thanjan info@reneuenergy.com www.linkedin.com/in/bthanjan/ www.reneuenergy.com Suzanne Waters suzanne@reneuenergy.com www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-waters-01bb6077/ www.reneuenergy.com Juan Truyol jtruyol@stratasolar.com www.linkedin.com/in/juan-truyol-4995b958/ https://stratasolar.com/ www.facebook.com/strata.solar/ www.twitter.com/StrataSolar www.youtube.com/channel/UCx9ml4yKbGoaDkJxNyXfQMQ Steve Schwerd www.schwerdconsulting.com/ admin@schwerdconsulting.com www.linkedin.com/company/schwerd-consulting/about/ www.linkedin.com/in/steveschwerd/ www.facebook.com/Schwerd-Consulting-744150758955130/ www.twitter.com/schwerdsolar Chris Grablutz https://pvpros.com/ info@pvpros.com www.linkedin.com/in/cgrablutz/ www.twitter.com/PVProsInc Jersey CIty Tech Meetup We would like to thank you to Jersey City Tech Meetup for partnering with Reneu Energy on this great solar event. For more information on Jersey City Tech Meetup. Please follow the links below. https://jctechmeetup.com https://www.meetup.com/Jersey-City-Tech-Meetup/

Aug 13, 2019 • 47min

SMP 41: Solar Entrepreneur Perspective on Development of Solar and Storage Projects

SMP 41: Solar Entrepreneur Perspective on Development of Solar and Storage Projects Episode Summary Solar entrepreneur, Ben Levy joins Benoy on the podcast this week to talk about his passion for solar and his company Round Trip Energy. Ben has a diverse background and unique perspective on what it means to be a solar developer and consultant. Their conversation spans topics such as the Washington DC solar market, dealing with massive shut downs like what happened with the hurricane in Puerto Rico, Ben’s experience and advice as an entrepreneur, and current trends and projections in the larger solar community. About our Guest: Benjamin is the Founder and Executive Director of Round Trip Energy, a growing renewable energy consulting and development startup, specializing in the development, financing, operation, and management of commercial and utility-scale solar, wind, energy storage, and energy efficiency projects. The company develops world-class greenfield and behind-the-meter projects that are optimized for performance and speed to deploy with Round Trip’s proprietary cost-risk-mitigation development approach. Benjamin is a project developer, engineer, and construction manager with experience in cradle-to-grave development of world-class renewable power generations facilities across the US and Caribbean. His career in construction of sustainable projects also includes 5 years in energy efficiency project development at military bases and other Federal government campuses as well as success with leading HVAC, lighting, water, building envelope, and water treatment retrofit projects. Mr. Levy was previously a manager of Project Development at Constellation Energy and Sr. Manager of Engineering and Construction at Sonnedix, both developer-owners of large-scale power generation facilities and pioneers in the utility-scale renewable space. He led the design and construction of the 58MW solar, 22MW energy storage Oriana Solar Park, the largest solar plant in the Caribbean. 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. Insight from this episode: What Round Trip Energy does, what makes them different, and why Ben started the company. The underserved areas of the solar business Ben’s take on the DC market and what makes it uniquely challenging What it’s like to work on projects in Puerto Rico including the impact of hurricanes and managing a crisis of that magnitude The potential of energy storage projects in the future and which markets are strong for this opportunity Suggestions and advice for people looking to be an entrepreneur in a world that enforces the “stable 9-5 employee” job structure Quotes from the show: “There’s a lot of companies doing off grid residential, and there’s a lot of suppliers providing PCS and batteries together, but there’s not a lot of companies that are integrating and providing the full permitting and analysis and implementation scope.” Ben Levy, Episode #41 “What’s different about D.C. is we have a true confinement of the supply of SRECs (Solar Renewable Energy Certificates). That’s because D.C. is essentially a 9 mile by 9 mile grid that’s totally packed with residential houses and commercial office buildings. There’s very limited space to add solar.” Ben Levy, Episode #41 “The investors that win projects are the ones that are comfortable with taking a certain portion of merchant SREC risk.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #41 “Financiers and investors are willing to take a little bit more merchant risk than they used to be and that is a product of who are the tax equity and sponsor equity investors and what’s their comfort and risk level.” Ben Levy, Episode #41 “I believe over the next 3 or 4 years regulators, policy makers, utilities, and local jurisdictions are going to be catching up and creating structures where developers and builders out there will be able to connect the real technology with the clients who need them.” Ben Levy, Episode #41 “Our bills especially here on the east coast are shifting to being more demand heavy than energy heavy because they’re realizing that they need to incentivize people to get their demand down in the times where it’s quite congested.” Ben Levy, Episode #41 “It’s a lot easier to get power back onto the grid from the storage devices.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #41 Stay Connected: Benoy Thanjan: info@reneuenergy.com LinkedIn.com/bthanjan www.reneuenergy.com Facebook: Reneu Energy Ben Levy www.roundtripenergy.com info@roundtripenergy.com LinkedIn - Round Trip Energy Facebook: Round Trip Energy

Aug 6, 2019 • 36min

SMP 40: Strategies for the Low Income Population to Use Solar Power

Episode Summary Li Wang, Director of Marketing at Reneu Energy, returns to the podcast as co-host. Listen as he and Benoy catch up about current events and discuss some hot topics in solar right now including solar energy projects in low income areas. 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: Thoughts on the topic of India becoming a leader in solar with their tariff exemption. The state of solar business in other countries and how it compares to solar in the US. Low income housing and solar opportunities in the New York market. The benefits of solar projects in low income communities. A review of current state of solar industry including state and federal level legislation, tariffs, jobs, and the investment tax credit. The normalization and social acceptance of solar as it is becoming more mainstream. Quotes from the show: “The perception has been that solar, at least in the US, is just for the wealthy.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #40 “Community solar is one of the fastest growing types of solar in the US but states are requiring that a certain percentage of it be low income.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #40 “You’re providing solar and energy to a population that doesn’t have it, and also promoting renewable energy, allowing people to lower their carbon footprint, and allowing people who would not normally receive solar to get solar energy and be involved in the process.” Benoy Thanjan, Episode #40 “After the initial investment it’s been shown to actually be able to lower utility bills which is significant.” Li Wang, Episode #40 “Solar has an opportunity now to become more accepted in the mainstream instead of a privilege for the rich.” Li Wang, Episode #40 Resources Mentioned: Shark Tank Grant Cardone Book: The Power of Broke by Daymond John Sponsors for Recent Reneu Energy Events Infiniti Energy Services Spano Partners Schwerd Consulting CBL Markets To request a media kit send an email to info@reneuenergy.com Stay Connected: Benoy Thanjan info@reneuenergy.com LinkedIn.com/bthanjan www.reneuenergy.com Facebook: Reneu Energy Li Wang MJWangMedia.com Instagram: @liwang22

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