SMP 285: How Battery Storage Is Powering the Future of the Grid with Russell Laplante, CFO of Convergent Energy and Power

About this episode

Benoy Thanjan interviews Russell Laplante about the role of battery storage in the future of the energy grid.

In this episode of the Solar Maverick Podcast, Benoy Thanjan speaks with Russell Laplante, Chief Financial Officer of Convergent Energy and Power, one of the leading battery storage developers and operators in the United States. Russ shares his nearly two-decade journey in renewable energy from his Goldman Sachs training program to becoming the first employee at wind startup Own Energy in 2007, through utility-scale solar at Tradewind Energy and Savion, and now leading the financial strategy at Convergent’s distributed and utility-scale battery storage platform. The conversation covers Convergent’s business model working with commercial and industrial customers on behind-the-meter battery and solar-plus-storage projects, how they save C&I customers up to 40% on their energy bills, and how batteries help utilities defer costly transmission and distribution upgrades. The episode dives deep into the financing of battery storage, including tax equity, portfolio debt financing, partnership flip structures, and why distributed generation requires a fundamentally different capital strategy than utility-scale projects. Russ also shares his perspective on the massive opportunity around…

People in this episode

Host: Benoy Thanjan

Guest: Russell Laplante

Topics covered

• battery storage
• renewable energy
• energy savings
• financial strategy
• utility-scale projects
• data centers
• AI-driven load growth

Keywords

• battery storage
• renewable energy
• energy bills
• financing
• distributed generation
• utility-scale
• data centers
• tax equity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Convergent Energy and Power, Goldman Sachs, Own Energy, Tradewind Energy, Savion, Big Beautiful Bill, Foreign Entity of Concern

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