“Our company’s mission is to help Australians save one billion dollars”: How Think Renewable is rewiring the energy market

As the Australian market moves toward full home electrification, Think Renewable has emerged as a national leader in the power sector. Chief executive officer Daniel Tonkin reveals the proactive strategies the company is using to drive down household energy bills.

To understand the rapid rise of Think Renewable, one of Australia’s fastest-growing clean energy companies, you only have to look up.

Co-founder and chief executive officer Daniel Tonkin says the company’s premise is simple: “The sun is the largest energy source we have, so why wouldn’t we maximise it?”

For Think Renewable, founded in 2021, this means end-to end-to-end clean energy solutions, encompassing solar, battery, and energy management. 

With headquarters in Sydney, Perth and Brisbane, the company specialises in installing solar panels, solar batteries, and virtual power plant (VPP) technology to accelerate the clean energy transition.

Tonkin and the team want to make the household task of going green easier and help customers save money in the process, and this people-first approach is paying off. Think Renewable has grown to over 220 employees and anticipates $70 million in revenue this financial year.

“Our company’s mission is to help Australians save one billion dollars on their electricity bills by 2030,” says Tonkin. “If that allows people to have more money to spend on their families, it’s a big win.”

Think Renewable’s rapid growth recently earned the company a spot on the AFR Fast Starters list, recognising 100 high-growth Australian startups. Tonkin puts much of this success down to addressing gaps in the renewable sector.

Before launching Think Renewable, Tonkin co-founded WOW Recruitment, an award-winning recruiting agency, and continues to serve on its board. Tonkin applied WOW’s diligent, purpose-driven approach to organisational building to the clean energy space.

“Many businesses were trade-led and moved into solar sales but lacked the systems, structure, and customer focus needed to scale properly,” says Tonkin. “The biggest lesson for me was that you can’t outgrow structure, and you have to build it ahead of the growth.”

As Think Renewable expands, Tonkin remains focused on the company’s overarching ambition and the mini-milestones along the way.

“We want to be the go-to for Australians to look after all their renewable needs,” says Tonkin. “To be a shining light, we need to deliver day in and day out, which requires great people and great systems.”

Q&A

What was the spark that inspired you to start your business, and how did the first idea take shape? 

I started my first company when I was 22. It was an outsourced sales agency where we worked with brands like HelloFresh to expand their customer base. We helped many companies expand quickly, and I built a strong understanding of sales, scaling teams, and empowering other leaders. Behind the scenes, we were proud to deliver great service and results for those brands, but we also wanted to build a brand that customers recognised and trusted directly, while owning the entire customer journey end-to-end. We made the decision to combine our experience in sales and operations and build something different, a business that could deliver the full experience for customers.

In your field, what major shifts or trends do you believe leaders cannot afford to ignore right now? 

For leaders in renewables, the biggest shift is the move towards full home electrification, not just solar, but batteries and EV chargers all working together. With the electrification of the home going to be a major focus over the next few years, building your own installation capacity to create value with future renewable products is a must.

As households move towards fully electric homes, the complexity of delivering these systems increases. It is no longer about a single product; it is about managing the full solution end-to-end. The reliance on subcontractors in our industry is too great, and to build the right value chain, you need to be able to pivot quickly and control all aspects of the customer experience.

What is the most misunderstood aspect of your industry, and how are you working to change that? 

Two misconceptions are that solar is where renewables end and that renewables do not stack up in terms of cost and ROI without government support. Over the last 20 years, product costs have fallen sharply, while government rebates have been declining every year.

Thousands of people across Australia are now energy-independent. By using solar batteries to charge during the day for night use, and charging electric cars without traditional petrol costs, people are reducing costs to zero and sometimes even profiting by selling energy back to the grid. With uncertain energy markets, lower product costs, and rising energy rates, renewables will remain an effective energy source with strong ROI, with or without government rebates.

Every journey has setbacks. What is the toughest challenge you have overcome, and what did it teach you? 

Scaling a fast-growing business has definitely been the biggest challenge. With Think Renewable, we are responsible for the full journey, from sales through to installation and ongoing support, which adds a lot more complexity. You go from a small team to 50 people, then suddenly 220, and you realise pretty quickly that what worked early on does not scale.

That meant getting much better at documenting processes, communicating clearly, and reinforcing that across multiple touchpoints, not just emails, but team meetings, training, and one-on-ones. It also meant creating clear accountability. Early on, we had multiple directors making decisions, which created confusion as we grew. Bringing in a person with significant expertise to build out a Head of Operations and Tech Ops function was a big turning point, allowing us to keep scaling without losing control.

What drives you at this stage of your career? 

For me, it has always been about the people. One of the things I enjoy most about being a CEO is building relationships and seeing people grow over time. A big driver for me now is creating opportunities for others, backing people early, and giving them the chance to step into roles they might not yet feel ready for.

Mentoring has been a big part of that. I mentored the co-founders, Rory and David, in earlier business ventures before we started Think Renewable together, which helped shape how we built the business and the team around us. As the business grows, it is less about the numbers and more about what that growth creates. Seeing people hit real milestones in their lives, like buying their first home off the back of their success and hard work, is what makes it worthwhile.

If you could solve one pressing problem in your industry, what would it be? 

Trust and transparency are still two of the biggest challenges in renewables. It is a complex space, and ultimately, you are putting a pretty powerful system in your home. People want to know they are making the right decision and that the company they choose will still be there in years to come.

Our focus has always been to make sustainability simple. We guide customers through the entire process, helping them understand their options, and we have built a large in-house team to support them at every stage, so they always have someone to speak to.

Learn more at thinkrenewable.com.au.