In honor of the Summer Solstice, the day of the year with the most daily sunlight, a distributed energy start-up company is releasing a residential integrated energy management cabinet system that stores solar energy on its 5 kWh battery systems to provide up to 30 kWh of back-up power in the event of a power outage.
Lunar Energy announced the release of its first consumer hardware product, the Lunar System, a residential distributed generation cabinet that integrates rooftop solar generation, battery storage, and load control in one product suite.
The DG cabinet includes the company’s Lunar Battery, a lithium-ion battery which ranges from 10 kWh to 30 kWh capacity, configurable in 5 kWh battery block increments, and a hybrid 10 kW inverter, providing enough power to back-up home heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and common household appliances.
The residential cabinet can be connected with an on-site solar array, which the company does not provide, and uses the Lunar Bridge, an electric panel monitoring system that toggles between the grid and off-grid battery power in 30 milliseconds. During a grid outage, the Lunar Switch automatically turns off non-essential appliances like EV chargers or pool pumps to prioritize necessary appliance usage.
The company said the residential battery is 47% smaller and more compact than other comparable batteries currently on the market.
Lunar Energy said that in a high solar penetration market like California, given recent net energy metering changes taking less value away from solar output, an average home using a 20 kWh Lunar System paired with a 5 kW solar array would see a payback period for the system’s installation within seven years. Such an installed configuration could cost between $20,000 and $30,000, the company said.
Sunrun, the company’s solar installation partner, will begin taking orders over the Fall of 2023 to install Lunar Systems paired with Sunrun solar systems, the company said. Installers seeking to learn more about the Lunar System can click the link above, including how to become a licensed installer.
In February, Sunrun and Lunar Energy partnered on a nationwide virtual power plant (VPP) network. The solar installer currently has VPP operations in New England, New York, California, Arizona, and Hawaii, with plans tens of thousands of new home distributed generation systems in additional states and territories. Before partnering, Lunar Energy had deployed 35,000 Lunar Gridshare interconnected home battery systems in Japan and 1,600 across Europe.
Lunar is partnered with Sunrun and other solar installers to integrate residential PV solutions with the Lunar System. Interested customers can configure their own system on Lunar Energy’s website.
Founded in 2020, Lunar Energy is based in Mountain View, Calif., and has raised about $300 million in equity funding to date. The company’s management team includes chief executive officer Kunal Girotra and senior vice president of engineering Kevin Fine, the former head and engineering director of Tesla Energy, the solar business of the EV manufacturer.
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