Sunrun, Renew Home, and Tesla Team Up to Deliver More Than 16 Gigawatts of Fast, Flexible Power for Data Centers and Large Loads
SAN FRANCISCO, June 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunrun (NASDAQ:RUN), Renew Home, and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), today announced an agreement to deliver more than 16 gigawatts1 of flexible energy capacity to hyperscalers and utilities. The agreement establishes a framework for three of the largest players in home energy to aggregate millions of existing demand side and energy exporting devices in states across the country into local, turnkey solutions that require no additional hardware, software, interconnection, water, or land usage for offtaking parties.
Deployable in months, not years, this capacity-as-a-solution framework creates headroom on the existing grid by freeing up transmission capacity, easing congestion on distribution infrastructure, and extending the duration and depth of available capacity, all while helping American households lower energy bills, earn rewards, and power through outages.
Together, the companies would form the largest distributed power plant in the country — capable of injecting net new electrons onto the grid from home batteries paired with solar generation while simultaneously shifting household load during peak demand hours. The combined 16-gigawatt resource draws dispatchable capacity from hundreds of thousands of home battery systems operated by Sunrun and Tesla, alongside flexible peak capacity from more than 8 million smart thermostats and devices managed by Renew Home.
"The grid of the 1800s cannot power the innovation of 2026," said Sunrun CEO Mary Powell. "Americans deserve innovation that does not create unnecessary energy costs. When data centers are asked to throttle down operations during the most expensive and stressful hours of the day, we can activate our distributed power plants to help provide them the power they need while also protecting American families from footing the bill for costly new infrastructure."
An Untapped Opportunity Requires a Bold Solution
In Virginia — the heart of Data Center Alley — the companies already have more than 300 megawatts of capacity readily available for immediate deployment. By 2030, that figure is expected to grow to at least 500 megawatts, rivaling some of the largest generation facilities in the state, as installations of home batteries and smart thermostats ramp.
The companies are capable of building multiple gigawatts of additional capacity across the country. Given the unprecedented race for power, hyperscalers interested in securing these local energy resources are encouraged to engage immediately, as available capacity will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Together, the companies have also committed to provide capacity to PJM’s proposed Reliability Backstop Process. If accepted, PJM would immediately unlock over a gigawatt of capacity today, with more deployable in the years ahead for peak shaving, locational grid relief, and fast-responding ancillary services.
"Renew Home convened this strategic coalition because we believe hyperscalers are motivated to drive down costs through this transition and that this group of residential-focused energy companies can help them accomplish that goal," said Ben Brown, Chief Executive Officer at Renew Home.
Speed to Power Through Distributed Resources
As electricity demand increases and tech leaders align with the Presidential Ratepayer Protection Pledge, the need for a technology neutral energy strategy to support cost-effective economic growth is critical.
Hyperscalers are racing to bring AI compute online while interconnection queues lengthen and energy costs increase. The grid is sized for peak hours that occur only a fraction of the year, leaving expensive infrastructure underutilized most of the time, a cost ultimately borne by every ratepayer.
New analysis from The Brattle Group finds that better utilization of the existing power grid could reduce U.S. electricity bills by $110 billion to $170 billion over the next decade and accelerate data center interconnection by several years. Sunrun, Renew Home, and Tesla designed this framework to capture exactly that dual benefit: hyperscalers come online faster, and costs go down for everyone.
"The stakes are clear. America’s grid faces mounting pressure from data centers, electrification, and manufacturing growth that no single infrastructure solution can solve fast enough," said Colby Hastings, Senior Director of Residential Energy at Tesla. "Sunrun, Renew Home, and Tesla believe that a huge piece of the answer is already in place — in the batteries, thermostats, and electric vehicles inside millions of American homes, waiting to be put to work."
A Win-Win-Win For Customers, Communities, and Economic Development
Residential customers, data centers, and utilities can all benefit from the improved scale, speed, and cost effectiveness this framework activates. Key aspects include:
- Better grid utilization, lower rates for everyone: When customers choose to shift how they use energy during peak periods, it allows grid operators to focus on more cost-effective infrastructure — and that means lower energy costs for all ratepayers, not just owners of distributed energy resources.
- Innovative customer offers and experiences: Sunrun, Renew Home, and Tesla are building new customer offerings and AI-driven tools to lower the cost of solar-plus-storage systems and expand access to reliable home energy and more ways to participate in grid programs.
- Savings and rewards for households that have enabled these devices: The companies will unlock new ways to help households manage their energy costs and earn rewards for participating in grid-supporting programs.
- Latent existing capacity: Gigawatts of capacity and customer savings sit on the sidelines today in the form of idle home batteries, HVAC systems, and EVs. The three companies, in partnership with data centers and utilities, can unlock this latent capacity immediately.
- Speed to new capacity: Distributed capacity through residential installations is the fastest way to meet immediate system needs without expensive new poles and wires or additional land usage. This agreement between three of the largest players in home energy can create a structure to stand behind commitments on development timelines.
- National coverage: Meeting the needs of hyperscalers requires scale across several key geographic areas. Sunrun, Renew Home, and Tesla have the largest combined residential energy footprint in the country, with deployable capacity and utility relationships in most major electricity markets.
- Joint market development: Data center and utility procurement teams are stretched thin. This new joint capacity delivery framework can give them a single, trusted source for gigawatts of flexible capacity by cutting through the complexity of managing multiple resource developers and accelerating the path from need to deployment.
For more information about working with Sunrun, Renew Home and Tesla for flexible capacity and household savings, visit www.vppcapacity.com.
About Sunrun
Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ:RUN) is America’s largest provider of home battery storage, solar, and home-to-grid power plants. As the pioneer of home energy systems offered through a no-upfront-cost subscription model, Sunrun empowers customers nationwide with greater energy control, security, and independence. Sunrun supports the grid by providing on-demand dispatchable power that helps prevent blackouts and lowers energy costs. Learn more at www.sunrun.com.
About Renew Home
Renew Home brings households and energy providers together to help households save energy and earn rewards while offering energy providers cost-effective, reliable grid capacity at scale. With its home energy management platform, Renew Home empowers millions of households to save and shift their energy use to times when it's cleaner, less expensive or better for the grid. Renew Home VPP is building the country’s largest virtual power plant solution for energy providers, with more than 6 million connected households. Renew Home is a Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) company. Learn more at www.renewhome.com.
About Tesla
Tesla Energy Operations, Inc. is the sustainable energy division of Tesla, Inc. that develops, manufactures, sells and installs photovoltaic solar energy generation systems, battery energy storage products and other related products and services to residential, commercial and industrial customers.
Media Contacts
Wyatt Semanek
Sr. Director, Corporate Communications
press@sunrun.com
Sarah Spitz
Director, Communications
press@renewhome.com
Investor & Analyst Contact
Patrick Jobin
SVP, Deputy CFO & Investor Relations Officer
investors@sunrun.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding Sunrun’s, Renew Home’s, and Tesla’s framework to pursue distributed energy resource opportunities; the potential availability, timing, scale, dispatchability, and benefits of aggregated capacity; potential participation in PJM’s proposed Reliability Backstop Process and other utility or market programs; potential opportunities with utilities, hyperscalers, data centers, and other large energy customers; anticipated customer participation, customer benefits, grid benefits, cost savings, and ratepayer impacts; potential deployment timelines; and potential new customer offerings, software capabilities, and AI-driven tools.
Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates, assumptions, and beliefs, and may be identified by words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "target," "estimate," "may," "will," "could," "potential," "designed to," "seek," "pursue," and similar expressions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied, including customer enrollment and authorization; device availability, performance, interoperability, and dispatch accuracy; utility program design and participation; PJM and other market rules, acceptance, implementation, and settlement processes; regulatory approvals and changes in regulatory frameworks; interconnection, telemetry, data access, cybersecurity, and privacy requirements; the ability of the parties to integrate operational capabilities while maintaining appropriate information controls; supply chain availability and costs; macroeconomic conditions; changes in utility rate structures, net metering policies, incentive programs, and tax rules; partner performance; market demand from utilities, hyperscalers, data centers, and other customers; and other risks described in Sunrun’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Sunrun undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.
1 Battery Storage MW calculation is based on the installed battery rated capacity. HVAC MW calculation is based on the 1-hour peak load shift potential from connected smart HVAC systems and thermostats across Renew Home’s HVAC partners.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c86e0633-6933-4ed6-b257-920ccc2a54ae
