From Cars to Grid: Moment Energy Reinvents Energy Storage with Repurposed Batteries

May 6, 2026

Eddy Chiang, co-founder and CEO of Moment Energy, builds commercial energy storage from repurposed EV batteries. He discusses certifying second-life systems, why safety—not just cost—drives adoption, and how modular distributed batteries can replace grid upgrades. The conversation also covers scaling manufacturing, UL certification, and meeting hyperscaler demand with long-lived infrastructure.

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INSIGHT

Modular Luna Systems Enable Distributed Storage

Moment Energy's Luna modular systems are compact building blocks for distributed energy storage.
The half Luna is ~400 kWh (less than a 10-foot footprint) and chains to scale, enabling site-level deployments at airports and neighborhoods.

INSIGHT

Batteries Beat Costly Grid Upgrades For C&I

Batteries can be cheaper alternatives to distribution upgrades for C&I customers facing long waits and multi-million dollar utility upgrades.
Moment cited examples where utilities requested $20M per site for transformer and line work versus deploying batteries instead.

INSIGHT

C&I Market Is A Domestic Opportunity

Distributed C&I market is underserved by Chinese gigafactory players who target massive volume deals.
Moment competes by offering onshore, cost-competitive, and better-distributed solutions for sub-gigawatt orders.

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Eddy Chiang is Co-founder and CEO of Moment Energy, a company building commercial-scale energy storage systems from repurposed electric vehicle batteries. By testing, certifying, and remanufacturing second-life battery modules, Moment Energy is creating lower-cost alternatives to new lithium-ion storage while extending battery lifespans by decades.

In this episode of Inevitable, Chiang explains how a growing wave of retired EV batteries is reshaping the energy storage market—making recycling alone economically unviable. The conversation covers the technical and regulatory challenges of certifying second-life systems, how Moment Energy became the first company to achieve full UL certification, and why safety, not cost, is the real barrier to adoption.

We also explore how distributed battery systems can replace traditional grid upgrades, why hyperscaler demand is accelerating deployment, and how Moment Energy is positioning storage not just as a product, but as long-term infrastructure designed to last 100 years.

MCJ is a three-time investor in Moment Energy. The company just closed a $40M Series B co-led by Evok Innovations and the Canadian Growth Fund — with the participation of Amazon, Liberty Mutual, Voyager and our fund.

Episode recorded on April 14, 2026 (Published on May 5, 2026).

In this episode, we cover:

(0:00) An overview of Moment Energy
(2:47) Moment Energy’s market evolution
(6:37) What certification means and why it’s the hardest part
(10:22) Are second-life batteries actually safe?
(12:15) Hardware + software: how Moment Energy builds safe systems
(15:39) Moment Energy’s product: modular, distributed battery systems
(19:06) Batteries vs grid upgrades: the core economic tradeoff
(25:35) Repurposed batteries and domestic supply chains
(29:49) The second life of EV batteries and why most still have value
(35:20) Designing battery systems to last 100 years
(42:53) Demands for AI, hyperscalers, and distributed storage
(47:55) Working with Amazon and scaling deployment

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant