The U.S. power grid is struggling to keep up with rising electricity demand for everything from AI data centers and electric cars to increased domestic manufacturing. And though the U.S. has invested in vast amounts of new renewable power to help, connecting newly built large-scale wind and solar farms to the grid is an arduous process that takes years.

Mary Powell, the CEO of Sunrun and a former electric utility chief, thinks she’s got a quicker solution: transform more homes into their own power generation sites, with solar panels and batteries. Her San Francisco-based company hit an industry-first last month by installing solar and battery systems in a million U.S. homes.

That’s at least seven gigawatts of installed power-generating capacity and two gigawatt hours of energy storage. “It’s enough to power a city like San Francisco for half a day,” she told Forbes.

Powell, who is honored today on Forbes’ inaugural Sustainability Leaders list, is eager to grow the number of homes that double as small-scale virtual power plants. Sunrun, already the largest U.S. solar installer, is ramping up battery deliveries as well, typically Tesla Powerwall units.

“I can scale fast”

Average residential projects for Sunrun typically include 7.5 kilowatts of solar panels and batteries with at least 13-kilowatt hours of storage. The cost of such systems, which are made by suppliers including JA Solar and Qcells, varies but can easily top $20,000. A federal tax credit worth 30% of the total installation cost can help offset that and in states like California there are also rebates for installing battery systems. But Powell recognizes that affordability is key.

“We've focused on building a platform that can........

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