SMP 140: Agrivoltaics: One of the Next Frontiers in Solar

Episode Summary In this episode, Benoy interviews Dan French, the Executive Producer of the Solar Farm Summit and Virginia Solar Summit . Dan discusses Agrivoltaics, Virginia Solar Summit on August 31st, and the first annual Solar Farm Summit. 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.   Dan French Dan French is the Executive Producer of the Virginia Solar Summit and Solar Farm Summit.  Dan is a trained attorney and transaction expert with domestic and international experience. His U.S. practice has focused on real estate transactions, environmental risk transfer and redevelopment. Long a student of the deal, his watchword is ‘due diligence’, which helps explain why Dan has been trusted to lead transaction support initiatives for some of the largest companies in the world. His transactional experience encompasses thousands of properties of all conditions across two dozen states, with more than a billion dollars of property and environmental liability successfully transacted.  He has received an LL.M. in Business Law from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, a J.D. from St. Louis University School of Law, and a B.A. in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dan is leading a redevelopment renaissance within the larger real estate revolution—a technological, civic, social and market-based movement lifting the form and function of humanity’s built-environment to new heights, taking the health and wealth of our communities with it. He believes proactive due diligence is the difference in successful real estate transactions and in life. SMP 46: Why Brownfields are Ideal Sites for Solar? With Dan French https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-46-why-brownfields-are-ideal-sites-for-solar/   Stay connected: Benoy Thanjan Website: www.reneuenergy.com Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: Benoy Thanjan Facebook: Reneu Energy   Dan French Email:  [email protected] Website:  https://solarfarmsummit.com https://dbforesites.com https://virginiasolarsummit.com Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-french-4354047/   SUMMER SHINDIG on August 31 in Richmond, Virginia https://virginiasolarsummit.com   SMP 106:  Dual Use the Future of Agriculture Land https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-106-the-future-of-solar-on-agriculture-land-with-dual-use/   Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on iTunes, Podbean, YouTube, and most of the major podcast platforms. This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.