Episode Details

Episode Summary

In this episode of Solar Maverick, Jon Powers shares the origin story of CleanCapital and how they went from an idea to a start-up to a successful investment capital firm in clean energy.  Jon discusses how CleanCapital studied what was working in other business sectors to create an internal technology platform to identify and acquire clean energy assets, underwrite them efficiently, and bring new capital into the clean energy market. 

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.

Jon Powers 

Jon leads corporate strategy, operations, investor relations, and marketing for CleanCapital.  He is a clean energy and national security expert committed to making clean energy accessible to everyone.  

Prior to joining CleanCapital, Jon led public sector business development at Bloom Energy.  His passion for clean energy stems from his time serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq, where he learned how vital clean energy is in protecting America’s national security.  He helped to revolutionize the U.S. Army’s energy program, first as Special Adviser for Energy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army and later as Director of Outreach for the Army’s Energy Initiatives Task Force.  In 2012, Jon was appointed to the post of Federal Chief Sustainability Officer by President Obama. Jon is a graduate of John Carroll University and Johns Hopkins University.

He was named to Washington Life’s Top 25 Tech Leaders in D.C., 2016 and Renewable Energy World’s inaugural Solar 40 Under 40 list.

Insights from this episode:

• How to use technology to bring efficient solutions to the clean energy sector by analyzing what has worked in other industries such as real estate.
• How to create a technology platform that provides value, expedient execution, and workflow solutions. 
• Strategies for managing challenges in entrepreneurship and creating a successful company.
• Details on how CleanCapital continues to make adjustments to their business model to open new opportunities for investment.  
• Strategies for attracting investors that were not previously interested in the solar energy market.
• Details on the types of projects CleanCapital focuses on, what an ideal project looks like for them, and trends they are seeing in the solar financing industry.
• Details on Jon’s experience in the Army and how that led him into the clean energy sector, becoming a member of Operation Free and working for the White House under President Obama.

Quotes from the show:

• On working with partners in clean energy: “We don’t just acquire the asse