Kids from small communities often leave to find something their hometowns can’t offer. There’s a whole world out there filled with opportunities for new careers, education and perspectives.
After working with solar contractors across the country, Tony Martin returned to his hometown of Teutopolis, Illinois, to start Sonne Energy Solutions.
For Tony Martin, co-founder of Sonne Energy Solutions (No. 382 on the 2024 Top Solar Contractors List), leaving and learning was a necessary part of returning to his hometown of Teutopolis, Illinois — a village with a population of just over 1,600.
Teutopolis was founded by German-Catholic immigrants in 1839. Martin said it’s an idyllic town, one where he spent his childhood with his extended family, riding bikes with cousins and attending high school sporting events.
Martin worked for a decade in the solar industry before returning to Teutopolis. He and his wife, Traci, moved near Denver, Colorado, in 2009, where Tony found an internship installing solar projects. He moved to Nashville to work as a solar project manager and eventually returned to Denver as a residential lead at Namaste Solar.
“I loved the concept of solar,” Tony said. “I just never wanted to do something else. I like what it does for the environment, and it made total sense to me.”
He learned the ins and outs of the solar trade and brought that experience back to Teutopolis, founding Sonne Solar in 2019. At Namaste, he was responsible for managing a team of 50 people. At Sonne, Tony is the sole full-time employee. Traci handles a lot of administrative tasks but works another full-time job, and the only other employee works part-time. Sonne outsources project design and hires a local electrical contractor to help build arrays.
Tony handles everything else himself, including sales. Despite the lean company structure, Sonne installs about 300 kW each year. After almost five years in business, the company has completed more than 20 solar projects in Teutopolis alone.
“My mom and dad live three blocks away. On the way to their house, I think we’ve installed six systems,” Tony said.
Those ties to the history of the community drive Tony’s desire to do right by his customers. For one, the company’s name pays tribute to the city’s roots as the German word for sun.
With lean business practices and technically one full-time employee, Sonne Energy manages to install about 300 kW of solar a year.
Just up the road from his home is a building where his grandfather and great-great uncle founded a dental clinic. Sonne Energy will soon install a solar project there.
“Just knowing that they started that, and I get to take part in installing solar on that building. It’s not in our family now, but it was originally started by them,” Tony said. “I could hit a baseball from where that clinic is to my house. It’s just a really, really cool thing.”
Sonne has marketed its services in the past but has found that a referral in a tight-knit community like Teutopolis is more effective. And despite installing solar for nearly 15 years, Tony admits he isn’t the strongest salesperson, instead prioritizing honesty in sales conversations.
“I tell people all the time, I would rather you not do it than regret it,” he said. “I 100% don’t want to make a sale, install solar on someone’s house, and for whatever reason they wouldn’t be happy with it.”
Despite its population and small-town characteristics, Tony said Teutopolis is a hub for commerce and welcomes the ingenuity of something like solar. The town resides near Interstates 57 and 70 and lies about halfway between St. Louis and Indianapolis. Many businesses call the small town their home.
The Martins ultimately returned to Teutopolis to give their son a close extended family upbringing like Tony had. It’s a bonus that he’s able to pursue his passion of installing solar in his hometown and in the communities surrounding it.
“We’re small and we want to grow responsibly,” Tony said. “We want to make the business sustainable. We are here for the long-term; this is one of my ultimate passions.”
This story was featured exclusively in our 2024 Top Solar Contractors issue. See the issue and full list of top U.S. solar installers here.
This is what you call grass roots at its best, I wish him well in all his endeavors. My very first solar PV system on a home was in 2005, before the big Federal subsidy of the ITC of 30%. The guys name is Scott Carlson and his wife Mary at the time had an electrical business and did solar PV as part of their ‘business model’, Mary took care of all the paperwork. The installation was quick and complete in a few days. One day spent on the roof putting in standoffs and flashing, the next day the solar PV racking and array with the split inverter system. This system is still on that home’s roof today and is still working quite well, with (Sanyo) solar PV panels. Big national companies come and go IE) bad news for Sun Power recently, but the local installers are the actual soldiers with community ties instead of corporate ties. Look at company Real Goods Solar. Was established in 1977 in Northern California, became entangled in the corporate culture and expanded across California. The Carlson solar and electric company that installed my first solar PV system was gobbled up by Real Goods Solar. The corporate culture failed and around 2014 started to have financial problems, I understand the original principle got his business name back and is running the business back in Northern California. In 2020 RGS officially filed bankruptcy and is no more.
Bottom line this is change and change brings pain, it is the Pioneers like Tony Martin that are the “movers and shakers” of the change of how folks generate, store and dispatch energy in their daily lives.
KUDOS to all of you, the legacy you leave to the next generation to inherit the earth is (enormous).
T Bone Steak Sauce is the Man! You should have asked him to play his banjo! Savant