Episode Details

Episode Summary:

In this replay episode of the Solar Maverick Podcast, host Benoy Thanjan kicks off the debut episode of Sunvoy’s new podcast series, What Solar Installers Need to Know?

With over 20 years of experience in the energy industry, Benoy joins Joe Marhamati, co-founder of Sunvoy, for a candid and insightful conversation covering the real-world challenges and opportunities shaping solar today.

Topics Covered:

• The ongoing headaches of interconnection and how to navigate them
  
  
• How community solar is opening up new possibilities
  
  
• Why project financing is evolving—and what you need to know now
  
  
• The overlooked potential of renewable energy credits (RECs)
  
  
• How tariffs are disrupting the solar supply chain
  
  
• What’s next: battery tech, blockchain, and vehicle-to-grid innovation
  
  

Whether you're deep in solar development or just passionate about clean energy and grid transformation, this episode is packed with practical insights and future-focused takes.

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 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 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.  

Joe Marhamati

What gets me out of bed every day is helping solar installers learn from my lived experience in building and selling an eight-figure solar business, not just the successes but also the mistakes.

In my current role as co-founder and CFO of Sunvoy, I help solar in