- Energy
The Lunar System, from Tesla's former energy chief, is a solar-powered backup system with a modular battery pack that can power your entire home. It might even make you money...eventually.
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Last year, defunct home battery maker Moon Energy introduced its first product, the Moon System. It is a universal inverter, scalable backup power system and power controller that allows the user to control the entire system in one app, using new or existing solar panels - and the power grid. So-called "private power plants" on the moon offer the opportunity to make money by paying for excess electricity fed into the grid.
Lunar Energy is entering the increasingly crowded energy independence market, the most popular consumer product in this category being the Tesla Powerwall. Moon Energy founder and CEO Kunal Jirotra was Tesla's former energy chief, responsible for Tesla's solar and power well ambitions before leaving the company in early 2020.
"We're way ahead of them," Tesla's Gyrotra said during a video call showing the lunar system. What the Girotra Lunar system offers – all-in-one control with massive storage and load management capabilities in a compact package – is simply not available on the market.
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If you've driven through the suburbs, you've probably seen houses with solar panels on their roofs. These homeowners may be trying to lower their energy bills by conserving energy during the day, but these panels won't do much good when it's dark or pitch black. And if the power grid fails, the solar panels are usually not enough to run all your devices. That is why energy storage is an important consideration.
Batteries from companies like Lunar Energy can be used to power homes during power outages, nights or peak hours to reduce reliance on electricity that can come from non-renewable sources like coal-fired power plants.
And with the Moon Bridge, acting as an energy gateway between the power grid and the battery, homes can automatically use backup power in the event of a power outage or proactively use it when severe weather threatens. Users can switch from mains to battery mode within 30 milliseconds using the app.
Moon apps are full of features and information, but only if the user chooses to view them. This app shows you exactly what you need to know at first glance: how much excess electricity you have, how much you're using, and how much your solar power is producing. You will also receive an easy-to-read energy consumption report at any time.
They can also sell excess power to the grid with other lunar system owners as Virtual Power Generators (VPPs) to maintain the stability of the local grid. And you can calculate the amount of savings according to your local pension plan.
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Solar energy is entering an increasingly competitive market. Much airtime has been devoted to the Tesla Powerwall, which combines an attractive tablet device (the Powerwall Battery) with an app that follows the design language familiar to Tesla car owners. Tesla has exploded the car market with the approach of a Silicon Valley software company - meanwhile, Lunar Energy is playing with its own software for home electronics.
The app has profiles that you can customize to make the lunar system work the way you want. For example, there is a "self-eating" mode where the Moon Bridge "measures the connection between the grid and the house" and checks that it is zero, Kevin Finn, Chief Technology Officer of Moon Energy explains in the video. Contact Virgin .
It has shown well to live in the lunar system in a test environment. The hardware and software work as expected, and even better, it shows how to automatically detect the running dryer's electrical load and keep the dryer running in the event of a simulated power failure.
Of course, to run a fully autonomous system, you need enough battery and enough daylight. A solar system with a capacity of 10 to 30 kWh can be retrofitted with a 5 kWh battery in a single unit. Moon tells us that the device uses pocket cells with NMC chemistry.
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A solar system is based on a powerful inverter integrated into the main battery pack with a power handling capacity of up to 10 kW, which allows it to handle the loads of the main range, dryer and air conditioner simultaneously. By comparison, the Tesla Mini's stand-alone power wall inverter can better handle a 7.6 kW load. And the PowerOcean EcoFlow solar backup solution also has a 10 kW inverter, although this system is currently only planned for Europe.
The Moon Ecosystem also includes a Moon Switch that can automatically control and turn off unnecessary equipment such as pool pumps in the event of a power outage. The moon switch can be installed in an existing switchboard or in a moon bridge (which can be used as a master switch).
According to Lunar's calculations, the average California home would use a 20kW solar system and 5kW of electricity. It will pay for itself in seven years. According to Moon Energy, such an installed configuration can cost from $20,000 to $30,000.
Specifically, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently proposed improvements to the state's solar incentives that were introduced in November. The new Net Energy Metering 3.0 (NEM 3.0) now applies to all new solar installations, significantly reducing solar export revenue and increasing the time it takes owners to replace equipment and installation costs.
Unlike Tesla, Moon Energy does not manufacture or sell its own solar panels. Instead, Lunar works closely with Surun and other installers to not only meet its customers' solar needs, but also to install lunar systems. Interested customers can configure their systems now on the Moon Energy website and will be able to place orders through Sunrun starting in the fall.
Correction June 22 00:28 ET : A previous version of this article stated that the upper lunar module had a 10 kWh battery. The top part is a 10kW inverter with an NMC based battery below. We apologize for this error.
