Episode Details

In this episode, Benoy Thanjan speaks with João Barreto, CEO of EDPR NA Distributed Generation, at the ACORE Finance Forum. They explore the rapid evolution of distributed generation (DG) in the U.S., community solar market trends, and how EDPR is deploying capital to meet growing clean energy demand.

Topics Covered:

The origin and growth of EDPR NA DG and its 12 GW+ installed capacity in North America

Why distributed generation is a key complement to utility-scale solar and wind

EDPR’s strategic focus on Northeast and California DG markets

Insights on the impact of the House tax bill on renewable investment timelines

The policy-driven nature of community solar, and why California’s program rollback was a missed opportunity

EDPR’s balanced strategy between greenfield development and co-development partnerships

The challenge of navigating interconnection and permitting inconsistency across the U.S.

How EDPR differentiates in the DG space through experience, local presence, and global customer relationships

Perspectives on integrating storage with DG, and current limitations in markets like New York

Key Quote:

“Distributed generation is policy-driven—and understanding how to position in the right markets at the right time is what creates long-term value.” – João Barreto

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. 

João Salvação Barreto

Chief Executive Officer, EDPR NA Distributed Generation

João Salvação Barreto is the CEO of EDPR North America Distributed Generation, the distributed solar and storage business unit of EDP Renewables