Episode Details

Episode Summary

In this episode of Solar Maverick, Rich Walsh shares his journey to founding Madison Energy Investments with his two other partners, why Madison Energy Investment focuses on the Commercial and Industrial (C&I) solar market, and their goal of owning solar projects in every state.  The overall discussion is a very high-level look at trends in the solar industry, the complicated financing of solar projects, and where to continue to find value in solar sectors.

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.

Richard Walsh

Rich oversees all activities relating to business development and strategy at Madison Energy Investments.  This includes project origination, new market analysis and partner and customer relations. Rich spent 5 years at WGL Energy where he led business development activities related to solar.  He originated over $300 million of projects across dozens of state markets with clients ranging from the federal government to professional sports teams. Rich also previously worked in renewable energy advisory with Sterling Planet.  Rich currently serves as the US Representative for the World Energy Council’s future energy leaders programme. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Samford University.

Insights from this episode:

• Details on how Madison Energy Investments was founded, the partnerships they formed, and the role they play in the solar investment industry.
• How to differentiate your company using diversity, assuming risk, and adding value.
• Benefits of building strong, long-term relationships with developers of solar projects.
• Details on community solar projects and other solar programs across the United States that Madison Energy Investments is involved with.
• Secret to creating a strong business brand in a specialized market by identifying where that market has the most need.
• Benefits of creating many good partnership opportunities instead of focusing on only one large scale opportunity.

Quotes from the show:

• On the company motto Certainty, Speed, and Trust: “It’s to remind us that every time we introduce ourselves to someone we truly mean we are going to do exactly what we tell you we are going to do and we’re going to do it fast.” – Richard Walsh, Episode #66
• “The only way to get [larger scale projects] is to aggregate, the only way to aggregate is to have a team that understands what they’re doing, that has experience, and the only way to find the deals is to have long-term relationships.” – Richard Walsh, Episode #66
• On what makes Madison Ener