SMP 142: The Benefits of Local Solar

Episode Summary
Benoy interviews Robin Dutta who is the Campaign Director at Local Solar for All.   Local Solar for All’s mission is to create safer, more affordable and equitable ways to supply power to our communities.  Robin speaks about the benefits of Local Solar, the best states for Community Solar, and how the solar industry can improve our lobby and advocacy efforts.
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.  
 
Robin Dutta
Robin Dutta is Campaign Director for Local Solar for All.  He has worked in Market Development & Policy to SunPower Corporation and Nextiity and Board of Directors for the Chesapeake Solar & Storage Association.
Robin’s Objectives:
To create and maintain renewable energy markets across the country that promote healthy competition across industries and opportunities for residents, businesses, and industry to adopt environmentally sustainable practices that lower direct costs for them and indirect costs for society at-large;
To facilitate the evolution of the free market where environmentally sustainable outcomes are aligned with efficient and profitable business practices.
 
Stay connected:
Benoy Thanjan
Website: www.reneuenergy.com
Email: info@renewenergy.com
LinkedIn: Benoy Thanjan
Facebook: Reneu Energy
 
Robin Dutta
Website: https://www.localsolarforall.org
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/LocalSolar4All
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/LocalSolar4All
Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/local-solar-for-all/
DC Energy Happy Hour
https://www.linkedin.com/events/7099887817152937984/about/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-dutta-84208915/
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This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.