Moon Five has one goal: to increase renters’ ability to move away from fossil fuels and build electrical resiliency. As a team of renters ourselves, we’ve seen firsthand how difficult it can be to choose to decarbonize. People living in single-family homes can easily install EV charging, solar panels, batteries, and load-shifting devices (to help ease the strain on the grid); however, renters are often stuck with whatever property owners are willing to install. 

It’s a classic chicken-and-egg problem. Property owners often view rental properties as a means to generate a profit and are therefore not incentivized to invest in additional infrastructure, as infrastructure costs money upfront and usually increases operational expenses, while yielding a limited return on investment. Renters and condo owners, however, while generally more climate-focused, actually feel the brunt of this lack of infrastructure.

Rather than getting to charge their vehicle while they sleep, there is a demonstrably lower uptake of electric cars in multi-family homes, even when adjusting for income due to available options. Renters miss out on lowering their energy bills through load shifting, solar panels on their roofs, and, in the near future, resiliency from blackouts, even with energy stored in their vehicles just a few feet away from their unit’s electrical circuitry.