A home battery used to be easy to understand. It was backup power. When the lights went out, it kept the fridge running, the Wi-Fi alive, and the essentials on. That still matters, especially as outages become more common in many parts of the United States. But Kunal Girotra is betting on a much bigger idea. Through Lunar Energy, he is trying to turn home batteries into connected energy assets that can work together like a power plant.
That shift is important because the electric grid is under pressure from several directions at once. Homes are using more electricity. Rooftop solar is growing. Electric vehicles are adding new demand. Extreme weather is making reliability harder. At the same time, families want cleaner power and lower bills. A single battery in one garage cannot solve all of that. Thousands of batteries, managed by smart software, can start to make a real difference.
This is where Kunal Girotra and Lunar Energy come in. The company is building home battery systems and virtual power plant software designed to help homeowners store clean energy, use it at the right time, and send power back to the grid when demand is high. It is a practical idea with a big ambition behind it. Instead of treating homes as passive energy users, Lunar Energy wants to make them active parts of the energy system.
Who is Kunal Girotra
Kunal Girotra is the Founder and CEO of Lunar Energy, a clean energy company focused on residential battery storage, energy management software, and virtual power plants. Before starting Lunar Energy, he was known for his work at Tesla Energy, where he gained experience in one of the most visible energy storage businesses in the world.
That background matters because residential batteries are not simple consumer gadgets. They sit at the intersection of hardware, software, installation, utility programs, grid economics, and customer trust. A company in this space has to understand how to build a product people want in their homes, while also making it useful to utilities and grid operators.
Girotra’s work with Lunar Energy reflects that wider view. The company is not only selling a battery. It is building a system where the battery, the app, the software platform, and the grid connection all work together. That makes his story less about a single product and more about a changing energy model.
What Lunar Energy is building
Lunar Energy is best understood as a home energy company built around storage and intelligence. Its main consumer-facing product, the Lunar System, is designed to store solar energy, provide backup power, and help homeowners manage their electricity use more effectively.
For a homeowner, the value is easy to understand. Solar panels often produce power during the day, but many households use more electricity in the evening. A battery lets that daytime solar power move into the hours when it is needed most. It can also protect the home during outages and reduce the need to buy expensive electricity during peak periods.
But Lunar Energy’s bigger play is the software layer. The company’s virtual power plant software connects distributed energy devices, such as home batteries, solar systems, EV chargers, and smart thermostats, so they can work together. That software can decide when a battery should charge, when it should discharge, and when it can support the wider grid.
This combination of hardware and software is what makes Lunar Energy different from a company that simply sells backup batteries. A battery by itself is useful. A battery connected to a smart energy network can become part of something much larger.
Why home batteries are becoming more important
The timing behind Lunar Energy’s work is not random. Home batteries are becoming more important because the electricity system is changing quickly.
For decades, most homes followed a one-way energy model. Power came from large power plants, moved through transmission lines, and arrived at the house. The homeowner paid the bill and had little control beyond turning devices on or off.
That model is now changing. More homes have rooftop solar. More families are buying electric vehicles. Heat pumps and home electrification are increasing demand. At the same time, electricity prices can rise during peak hours, and storms, heat waves, wildfires, and grid stress can make outages more likely.
A home battery gives households more control in this new environment. It can store low-cost or solar-generated electricity and use it when prices are higher. It can keep essential appliances running during a blackout. It can also reduce strain on the grid when many people are using power at the same time.
That last point is where the idea becomes especially powerful. A home battery is not only useful for one family. When managed well, it can help the grid avoid peak demand problems.
How home batteries can act like a power plant
A traditional power plant produces electricity from one central location. A virtual power plant, often called a VPP, works differently. It brings together many smaller energy resources, such as batteries, solar systems, EV chargers, and smart devices, and manages them through software.
One home battery may not look like much from a grid perspective. But 10,000 batteries, all coordinated at the right moment, can become a meaningful source of flexible power. They can charge when solar power is plentiful or electricity is cheaper. They can discharge when demand is high. They can help reduce stress on local grid equipment. They can also provide utilities with another tool besides firing up expensive or polluting peak power plants.
This is the heart of Kunal Girotra’s work at Lunar Energy. The company is trying to make home batteries useful not only as backup devices, but as grid-connected assets. In that model, the homeowner still gets personal value, but the grid also benefits.
The word “virtual” can make the idea sound abstract, but the outcome is very real. The power is stored in physical batteries inside real homes. The software simply coordinates those batteries so they behave like a larger resource.
The role of AI-powered software
The battery is the visible part of the system. The software is what makes it smart.
Lunar Energy uses software to manage how energy moves through the home and, when appropriate, back to the grid. This matters because the best time to charge or discharge a battery can change throughout the day. It depends on electricity prices, weather, solar production, household energy use, grid demand, and utility program rules.
AI-powered energy software can help make those decisions faster and more accurately than a homeowner could do manually. It can predict when the home will need power. It can estimate when solar generation will be strong. It can respond to peak demand events. It can also help balance the homeowner’s comfort with the grid’s need for flexible capacity.
That is why Lunar Gridshare is an important part of the company’s strategy. The platform is designed to manage distributed energy resources and support virtual power plant programs. In plain terms, it helps connect many separate energy devices into a coordinated network.
This is where the power plant comparison becomes clearer. A power plant needs dispatch, control, forecasting, and coordination. A virtual power plant needs those same things, but across thousands of devices spread across homes and neighborhoods.
Why Kunal Girotra’s Tesla Energy background matters
It is hard to talk about home batteries without mentioning Tesla Energy, because Tesla helped bring the idea of residential battery storage into the mainstream. Products like the Powerwall made many homeowners aware that a battery could do more than serve as emergency backup.
Kunal Girotra’s background at Tesla Energy gives his Lunar Energy work a useful context. He comes from a world where battery technology, residential energy products, customer experience, and clean power all overlap. That experience likely shaped the way Lunar Energy approaches the market.
Still, Lunar Energy is not just trying to repeat what already exists. Its approach is built around the belief that the next stage of home energy will depend heavily on software, grid participation, and better coordination between homeowners and utilities. The battery is only one part of the story. The network is the bigger prize.
This is also why Girotra’s work is worth watching. He is not entering the market as someone chasing a trend from the outside. He has worked close to the energy storage industry and is now building a company around where he believes the category is heading next.
Lunar Energy’s funding milestone
Lunar Energy reached a major milestone in February 2026 when it announced $232 million in financing to scale home battery deployments and AI-powered virtual power plant software. The financing included a $102 million Series D and a previously undisclosed $130 million Series C.
For a company like Lunar Energy, funding is not just a headline. It matters because energy hardware is expensive to build, deploy, and scale. Batteries require manufacturing, supply chains, installation networks, customer support, software development, and utility relationships. A company trying to grow in this market needs serious capital.
The funding also shows that investors are paying attention to the residential energy storage market. As grid stress grows and electricity demand rises, home batteries are becoming more than a niche climate-tech product. They are becoming part of the wider conversation about energy reliability, affordability, and resilience.
For Kunal Girotra, the financing strengthens Lunar Energy’s ability to move from promising technology to broader deployment. That is the real test in clean energy. A product can sound smart in a lab or pitch deck, but it only changes the grid when it is installed, connected, and used at scale.
How Lunar Energy can help homeowners
The homeowner benefits are central to Lunar Energy’s pitch. Most people do not buy a battery because they want to support grid architecture. They buy it because they want lower bills, backup power, more control, and a better way to use their solar panels.
A Lunar Energy system can help a household store energy during the day and use it later. That can reduce reliance on expensive grid power during peak hours. In homes with solar panels, it can also help people use more of the energy they generate instead of sending excess power away when it is less valuable.
Backup power is another major reason homeowners care. When the grid goes down, a home battery can keep essential loads running. For some households, that means comfort. For others, it can mean keeping medical devices, refrigeration, internet access, or heating and cooling available during a stressful moment.
Virtual power plant participation adds another layer. When a utility or grid program needs support, enrolled batteries can send stored electricity back to the grid. In return, homeowners may receive payments or bill credits, depending on the program. This creates a more active relationship between the household and the energy system.
That is a big shift. The home is no longer just buying power. It can store power, manage power, and sometimes provide power.
How Lunar Energy can help utilities and the grid
Utilities face a difficult balancing act. They need to keep electricity reliable while demand changes, renewable energy grows, and infrastructure ages. Building new power plants and grid upgrades can take years. In the meantime, flexible resources can help reduce pressure during the most difficult hours.
Home batteries can be useful because they are distributed. They are already located close to where electricity is used. If enough of them are coordinated through software, they can reduce peak demand, support local grid needs, and help smooth the ups and downs of renewable energy.
For utilities, a virtual power plant can become a cleaner and more flexible alternative to some traditional grid solutions. Instead of relying only on centralized power plants, utilities can call on a network of customer-owned devices. The grid gets support, and customers can be rewarded for participating.
This is why Lunar Energy’s work sits in a practical part of the energy transition. It is not only about producing more clean power. It is also about managing power better.
The bigger clean-energy shift behind Kunal Girotra’s work
The story of Kunal Girotra and Lunar Energy fits into a much bigger change. Homes are becoming more electric, more connected, and more important to the grid.
In the old model, the smartest energy equipment usually lived outside the home, inside utility systems and power plants. In the new model, intelligence is moving into the home itself. Solar panels, batteries, smart meters, EV chargers, thermostats, and energy apps are turning houses into small energy hubs.
That does not mean every home becomes independent from the grid. In many cases, the opposite is true. Homes may become more connected to the grid, but in a smarter and more flexible way. They can draw electricity when it makes sense, store it when it is available, and share it when the grid needs help.
This is the world Lunar Energy is building toward. It is a world where residential energy storage is not just a backup product for wealthy early adopters. It becomes part of a broader grid strategy.
Challenges Lunar Energy will need to solve
The opportunity is big, but it is not easy. Lunar Energy will have to solve several challenges as it grows.
Cost is one of the biggest. Home batteries can still be expensive, especially when installation is included. For many households, the financial case depends on local electricity rates, solar incentives, utility programs, and available rebates.
Customer education is another challenge. Many people understand backup power, but fewer understand virtual power plants, demand response, or battery optimization. Lunar Energy will need to make the experience simple enough that homeowners do not feel like they are managing a miniature utility.
Utility partnerships also matter. Virtual power plants work best when utilities and grid operators create programs that value distributed energy. That requires regulation, trust, technical standards, and market design.
Competition is also serious. The home battery market includes large established players, solar companies, software firms, and other climate-tech startups. Lunar Energy will need to prove that its hardware and software can deliver better value for homeowners and stronger results for grid partners.
Then there is the challenge of scaling hardware and software at the same time. Software companies can grow quickly when the product is purely digital. Energy companies have to deal with physical devices, installers, permits, service calls, and supply chains. Lunar Energy’s success will depend on how well it handles both sides.
Why this achievement matters
Kunal Girotra’s achievement is not just that he founded a battery company. The more interesting part is that he is building around a new role for the home.
For years, homes were treated as endpoints on the grid. Power arrived, people consumed it, and the system moved on. Lunar Energy is working from a different assumption. A home can be a place where electricity is produced, stored, optimized, and shared.
That idea could become increasingly important as electricity demand rises. The grid will need more clean power, but it will also need more flexibility. Home batteries can provide that flexibility if they are connected, trusted, and managed well.
This is what makes Lunar Energy more than a home battery brand. Under Kunal Girotra’s leadership, it is trying to build a platform where homeowners, batteries, software, utilities, and the grid all work together. If that model scales, the home battery may no longer be seen as a backup box on the wall. It may become one of the building blocks of a cleaner and more reliable power system.
