The thirst for renewable energy solutions among Australian homeowners in 2026 is great. The take-up is even greater. This year, a record 80 percent of the power demand on Australia’s national grid came from solar and wind power.
So it’s fair to say many Australians spend quite a lot of time thinking about renewables. But for entrepreneur Daniel Tonkin, it’s never enough. In 2021 he co-founded Think Renewable, an energy company with a modest goal: to help Australians save US$697 million (A$1 billion) on power bills by 2034.
Five years later, the company is well on its way and for his efforts, Tonkin has scored a finalist spot in both the Energy and Mining and the Startup categories at The CEO Magazine’s 2026 Executive of the Year Awards – Australia.
“In a fragmented market where our competitors outsource a lot of the work, we’ve focused on employing our own people,” he says. “That way, we can control and own the full customer journey, and that’s been key. The customer gets a better experience.”
“Solar was just the start. People are now looking at the electrification of their whole home.”
And that’s what Think Renewable is ultimately all about. The residential and commercial renewables sector has battled to stay out of the ‘too hard’ basket since its inception and that fight continues today. It’s tough to change an entire way of doing things, but Tonkin, a sales industry veteran, saw a better way.
“We believe you need to own the full chain, from lead generation and system design through to installation and aftercare, to be able to scale and give more opportunities to your people and your customers,” he says.
Keeping things simple
With in-house installation teams on hand, Think Renewable has cut through much of the confusion and overwhelm that potential renewable customers struggle with. With energy bills on the rise and resources facing steep price hikes around the world, the company’s customer base is grateful.
“Solar was just the start. People are now looking at the electrification of their whole home, with solar, batteries, EV charging, virtual power plants and more,” Tonkin says.
“We’ve seen that shift directly, with battery attachment increasing from 16 percent of sales in the 2025 financial year to around 90 percent in the 2026 financial year.”
“We’ve made education a bigger part of every customer conversation.”
But there’s still plenty of misinformation on the scene, so Tonkin and the Think Renewable team have made a point of keeping things simple.
“We’ve simplified our product range for our customers, worked with reputable manufacturers to offer the full scale of electrification and trained our teams across new technologies,” he explains.
“Every house is different and needs a separate energy solution. We hand-hold customers through the process and simplify the technical components so it makes sense and then people can decide if they want to move forward.”
AI has helped significantly in that regard, with an AI-led customer service platform and app at the ready to help customers get the support they need.
“And then we’ve built a national learning and development framework so our people can get educated anytime, anywhere in Australia, and we’ve made education a bigger part of every customer conversation,” Tonkin adds.
“I believe people perform at their best when they understand where the business is going, know what’s expected of them and are trusted to take responsibility for their work.”
People power
Tonkin has achieved this result through leadership that combines backing his people, staying clear under pressure and building systems that make good performance repeatable.
“People drive outcomes, so I look for values and attitude first, then skills,” he says. “It’s been a challenge to grow so quickly while the market is constantly changing around us, and if we’d only focused on sales, we could easily have grown faster than our ability to deliver, and the customer would have been the first to feel it.”
“Renewable energy can be delivered simply and at scale while keeping the customer at the center.”
Instead, the team has had to work together in unison to grow the business as a whole, a process that starts with choosing the right people and perhaps never ends.
“Our ambition is to become more than a business that installs solar and batteries,” Tonkin says. “The goal is to build an ongoing relationship with the customer, helping them get more value from their energy system over its lifetime.”
It’s all indicative of the high-performing, open and ownership-focused culture Tonkin has worked to build; work that has resulted in being shortlisted at the Executive of the Year Awards.
“It’s a real honor, but I see it as a recognition as the whole Think Renewable team as much as anything I’ve done personally,” he says.
“More than anything, it reinforces our core belief – that renewable energy can be delivered simply and at scale while keeping the customer at the center.”
