From enterprise to academia: How Dr Nikhil Jayaraj of Regen Power is building a net zero playbook

From powering dynamic growth at Regen Power, a Perth-based solar energy enterprise, to sharing his knowledge with international audiences, academic and entrepreneur Dr Nikhil Jayaraj is shaping Australia’s net-zero transition.

Australia is a global leader in solar energy, backed by growing local demand, competitive price points and supportive government rebates.

We also have one of the highest rates per capita of rooftop solar installations worldwide. In 2024, just over one-third (36%) of Australia’s total electricity generation was sourced via renewable energy, including solar (18%).

One company at the forefront of this transition is Regen Power. From pioneering local solar energy research in 2003, the business has doubled in size every year over the past eight years. It is today a multi-award-winning provider of domestic and commercial solar solutions.

Regen Power’s Managing Director, Dr Nikhil Jayaraj, joined the fledgling company as a graduate student in 2010. Today, under his leadership, the enterprise has a clear mission: to make renewable energy accessible and affordable for every Australian household. He believes the company’s success is anchored by three key areas – customers, research and policy – the point, as he puts it, where enterprise and academia intersect.

Customer-centric focus

Dr Jayaraj believes that the company’s early focus on building trust with customers, training local installers, data collection, and reinvestment in research and development meant Regen Power was ready to expand at speed when the federal government offered solar energy rebates for homes and businesses. Just four months after battery rebates were introduced, Regen Power installed more than 1000 units in Western Australia.

“We had the people, the systems, and, most importantly, the trust,” he says.

Regen Power has now installed more than 45,000 residential and commercial solar installations, in addition to battery systems and EV charging networks, generating more than 350 MW of clean energy and helping offset hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually.

That focus on customer service and post-installation follow-through over the life of the equipment resulted in Regen Power being named as ProductReview’s Best Solar Installer for the past five years. “Our clients built our reputation. They come to us for technology, but they stay with us for reliability and service,” he says. “Our growth isn’t just numbers. It’s about accountability. Every installation and every follow-up reflects the culture we’ve built.”

Award-winning entrepreneurship

Dr Jayaraj attributes Regen Power’s longevity of more than two decades to reinvestment in people and systems.

“Sustainability begins within the business. We can’t sell renewable energy if our own model isn’t sustainable — financially, operationally, and ethically.”

Dr Nikhil Jayaraj

That unique philosophy of combining business acumen with a social agenda is a winning combination. In 2020, and again in 2024, Dr Jayaraj was named winner of Business News 40 Under 40 Award, and he’s also a two-time finalist in The CEO Magazine’s Executive of the Year Awards.

Although commercial success and corporate acknowledgement might be enough for other business leaders, Dr Jayaraj was convinced he needed a deeper understanding of data-driven decision-making and why clean-energy transitions succeed or stall.

Local leadership, global recognition

While still leading Regen Power, he completed a Doctor of Business Administration at Curtin University, exploring how policy, culture and consumer trust influence technology uptake. By turning field data into academic insights and business practice, Dr Jayaraj created a feedback loop where a research-informed strategy and real-world experience validated research.

That analysis now guides Regen Power’s AI-driven customer-profiling systems, matching households with optimal solar-battery configurations, creating faster adoption, reduced costs, and increased energy independence. This application of academia to business highlights how Dr Jayaraj believes education can help entrepreneurs analyse markets more deeply and make better evidence-based decisions.

“Business success teaches you how to grow; education teaches you how to sustain that growth. Together they build resilience in both markets and mindsets,” he says.

Dr Jayaraj’s entrepreneurial leadership and academic record have also gained global recognition. He has been a strategic consultant with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and over the past three years, he has presented at more than 35 international conferences in the US, Europe, Asia, China and the Middle East, including being a keynote speaker at the World Renewable Energy Congress. He has also authored academic works published in international journals, including Scopus-indexed publications, the Energy Policy and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

His expertise is also helping shape Australia’s clean energy policy. As Research Adjunct at Curtin University’s Faculty of Business and Law; Chief Investigator on Co-operative Research Centres Projects; and a Lead Industry Partner with the Australian Research Council Linkage Project initiatives to boost battery and solar adoption through data-driven consumer engagement, Dr Jayaraj is helping to shape policy and industry collaboration, ensuring Australia’s clean-energy transition is guided by evidence, not assumptions.

Sunlight, science and spirit

While solar installation and battery storage research and development still have a way to go in Australia, Dr Jayaraj envisions that future domestic consumers will gain energy independence from existing power grids in the not-too-distant future.

Dr Jayaraj imagines a not-so-distant future where electric vehicles become mobile power sources, storing and supplying solar energy back into our homes

“In the end, it’s all about technology and affordability. Australia has the sunlight, the science, and the spirit. What we need now is the consistency to connect them,” Dr Jayaraj says.

Learn more at regenpower.com or follow Dr Nikhil on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/nikhil-jayaraj