SMP 64:  How Solar is Powering Extra Space Storage.

 

Episode Summary

In this episode of Solar Maverick, Nathan Vasher discusses how Extra Space Storage is one of the biggest corporate users of solar energy and how they plan to continue growing their solar deployment and also employing energy-conscious initiatives.  Nathan also shares his path to solar, trends he’s excited about, and an energy future that looks very bright.

 

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.

Nathan Vasher

Nathan Vasher is the Manager of Solar at Extra Space Storage, a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Standard & Poor 500 (S&P 500).  It is a fully-integrated, self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust. Extra Space has properties in 40 states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico, they own or operate over 1,800 stores comprising approximately 1.3 million units and 135 million square feet of rentable space.  Extra Space has become one of the largest corporate users of solar energy according to rankings realized by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).  The trade group ranked Extra Space in tenth place in terms of the number of solar installations.

Nathan has 7 years of professional client-facing experience working with public sector, non-profit and international clients through all phases of organization development; providing strategy, performance management, measures development, process improvement, change management, training and business process design services. He has experience providing technical support to advance health programs in the area of supply chain management working in multiple countries including The Netherlands, South Africa, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Cote D'Ivoire, and Switzerland.

 

Insights from this episode:

Details on Nathan’s role as Manager of Solar at Extra Space, the history of the company’s solar program strategy, and how that strategy has advanced over the years.
How Extra Space determines what properties to install solar.  
How Extra Space runs RFP process with preferred vendors on properties to determine where to install solar.
Why Extra Space has a preference toward owning the solar projects on their properties. 
How Nathan uses Extra Spaces’ past successes to guide where they invest in new solar properties.
Strategies to plan for the future when you are dealing with older properties and the inevitable repairs they will need.  
Benefits of employing energy-saving initiatives including increased energy efficiency and cost-saving.
Details on the step-down of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), how states are creating their own renewable energy incentives, and how that affects the viability of future solar development.

 

Quotes from the show:

On the financial feasibility of solar projects: “That’s something that we are always looking at, how do we get the most value for the capital that we spend and solar, up to this point, has been a huge return on our investment.” – Nathan Vasher, Episode #64
“Our wholly-owned [business] portfolio is really simple, if we see an opportunity to put solar on a property, we just move forward with it because we don’t need anyone’s permission.” – Nathan Vasher, Episode #64
On creating partnerships to further the solar program at Extra Space: “We’re just in the nascent stages of really trying to figure out what is best for each of our partners and how we work together with them to do solar [projects].” – Nathan Vasher, Episode #64
On preparing for the future of older properties: “We plan that in some point in the life of the solar [installation], the roof is going to have to be fully replaced.” – Nathan Vasher, Episode #64
On the biggest challenge of older properties:  “Trying to find the right mix, on some of the older properties, of how we can really get the biggest bang for our buck without having to really bend over backward to configure the system.” – Nathan Vasher, Episode #64
“One of the biggest challenges we have is getting the right-sized [solar] system for the property.” – Nathan Vasher, Episode #64
“The biggest benefit to going solar is the cost savings of using solar and not having to pay [for energy].” – Benoy Thanjan, Episode #64
“We’re just going to keep going until we run out of roofs.” – Nathan Vasher, Episode #64
“From where I sit, combining solar and storage is a huge opportunity … I think it’s going to be a trend, coupling power plus storage.” – Benoy Thanjan, Episode #64

 

Resources Mentioned:

Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC)

Request for Proposal RFP

The Investment Tax Credit (ITC)

 

Sponsor:

We would like to thank RadiantREIT for sponsoring this episode of the Solar Maverick Podcast.

RadiantREIT is the first-ever investment trust to bring mortgage REITs to the solar energy market.

For the solar developers and EPC developers out there, financing with RadiantREIT’s solar mortgage REIT will transform how you think about the business of project development. With RadiantREIT financing, you can increase project cash flow and you can retain ownership of your projects.

The company’s cradle-to-grave financing package includes the entire capital stack. RadiantREIT arranges tax equity, 100% construction financing and up to 99% term financing at competitive rates with no upfront fees including legal and diligence!

Co-Founders Jim Spano and Jeff Just are solar and finance veterans who have brought together a team of experts to create and offer this innovative financing model enabling developers to capture the true value of their development. They are committed to addressing the financing gaps that exist in today’s market, especially for small and mid-sized developers. RadiantREIT will remove the stress of financing or refinancing, and allow you to maintain focus on your projects. Let them be your outsourced, structured finance department.

Visit www.radiantreit.com to learn more and to submit your expression of interest form today.

 

Stay Connected:

Benoy Thanjan

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: @bthanjan

Website: https://www.reneuenergy.com

 

Nathan Vasher

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: Nathan Vasher

Website: Extra Space Storage

 

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