The $230M Bet on Turning Homes Into Power Plants | Lunar Energy

The $230M Bet on Turning Homes Into Power Plants | Lunar Energy

July 21, 2026 · 50 min

About this episode

Kunal Girotra discusses how Lunar Energy is transforming homes into power plants with innovative energy solutions.

What if your home could cut electricity bills by 60%, survive weeks without the grid, and earn money while you sleep? Lunar Energy is building an integrated home energy system combining solar, batteries, load controls, and AI-powered software. Its GridShare platform already manages 650+ MW across 150,000 homes, including third-party hardware. Founder and CEO Kunal Girotra previously led Tesla Energy from 2015 to 2020, helping bring Powerwall into residential energy storage. He has since raised more than $230 million to build Lunar. Here’s what we discussed: How to turn homes into distributed power plants — Why combining batteries, solar, controllable loads, and virtual power plants can lower bills, provide backup power, and create new grid revenue for homeowners. Why software matters more than battery hardware — How Lunar uses device-agnostic software to manage its own products and third-party equipment across 150,000 homes and 650+ MW of capacity. How AI can cut electricity costs by another 10–15% — Why localized, real-time optimization against changing import and export prices outperforms basic solar-plus-storage self-consumption. Why leasing is becoming the default for home…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Chris Wedding

Guest: Kunal Girotra

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Organizations: Lunar Energy, Tesla Energy, Sunrun

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