Keep Your Lights on with Brightbox™ in New Mexico

Brightbox is a holistic solar home battery service that offers you clean, safer, reliable back-up power to have better control over your home energy use and cost.

Brightbox allows you to store the excess energy your solar energy system produces during the day and use it when you need it most — such as in the evening, at night or when the electric grid fails due to an extreme weather event, or physical damage to the equipment.

Aside from very rare exceptions, Sunrun’s Brightbox service includes rooftop solar panels. Brightbox stores 100% clean, renewable, home-grown solar power directly from the rooftop panels every time the sun is out so you can use it when you need it most.

Just like solar panels, the number of Tesla Powerwalls or LG Chem batteries you need will be determined by your unique energy needs and habits — though for some consumers, one battery may be sufficient. Your Solar Advisor will help you evaluate your energy usage to customize a solar energy battery system that sufficiently backs up your entire home. Request a free quote to check if you qualify.

An LG Chem solar battery backs up part of your home, while a Tesla Powerwall backs up your entire home. There are also differences in software and app functionality.

A solar battery installation is a relatively simple process. Tesla Powerwall and LG Chem solar batteries are about the size of a water heater and easily mounted on a wall by our professional installers — usually inside your garage or outside of your home.

One Tesla Powerwall stores 13.5 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of usable electricity, which can be used to back up the home for a day. An LG Chem solar battery holds 9.8 kWh, which can be used to back up essential parts of the home from 8 to 12 hours. Rooftop solar panels will replenish the battery’s energy storage the following day. Back-up ability will depend on your unique home's power usage.

Through Sunrun’s Brightbox service, your Tesla Powerwall or LG Chem solar battery will automatically disconnect from the power grid in the event of a blackout and restore power in your home in a matter of seconds. Your rooftop solar panels will continue to recharge your solar battery until the grid is up and running again.

Our certified electricians will take care of installing and configuring your Tesla Powerwall or LG Chem battery for you. Batteries last anywhere between 10 and 15 years, and manufacturers typically offer a ten-year warranty.

Still, Brightbox is more than just a home battery: It’s a holistic service that includes professional maintenance and monitoring during the life of your agreement. Consumers who own their Tesla Powerwall or LG Chem solar battery get Sunrun service for ten years, while consumers with a monthly service agreement or full-amount service agreement get free maintenance and replacement for the lifetime of their contract.

You can monitor your solar battery performance on your mySunrun app. Sunrun also manages the battery remotely using proprietary software to make sure it’s running as it should and automatically updates your battery’s settings to save you as much money as possible.

Our monthly and full-amount solar leasing options come with proactive monitoring and maintenance — on us. So if we notice that your rooftop panels or solar battery aren’t working at their full capacity, we’ll send an expert over to fix it without you lifting a finger.

The best solar incentive available for a purchased home solar panel and battery storage system in New Mexico tends to come from federal tax credits. The Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, can provide individuals who qualify with a 30% tax credit.

Another major solar incentive is the New Mexico New Solar Market Development Tax Credit, which gives you a 10% state income tax credit of the total cost of a new home solar panel and battery storage system.

New Mexico also offers property and state sales tax exemptions with the purchase and installation of a new home solar energy system, as well as Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) that compensate you for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) your home solar power system produces.

On top of that, El Paso Electric (EPE), Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), Xcel Energy and other utility companies also offer net energy metering (NEM) programs to help you earn bill credits for the excess clean energy your solar installation produces and sends back to the grid. Net metering in New Mexico can give you more control over electricity bills.

Please consult with a tax professional in order to best utilize these programs.

Learn more about New Mexico Solar Incentives.

You can use a portable generator, however, Sunrun doesn’t offer back-up generators. If you’re interested in installing a back-up generator, you can contact a local electrician or solar energy installation company. These experts can recommend a system that will be appropriate for your home. Please note that a Tesla Powerwall or LG Chem solar battery cannot be installed in homes that already have a standby generator.

Our rechargeable solar battery systems are designed to keep you on-grid during normal service times while still providing reliable backup when the sun isn’t shining or during the event of an outage. This is the best and most economical way to use your Brightbox system, and it’s the one most strongly recommended by Sunrun’s service experts.

At this time, Brightbox with a Tesla Powerwall or LG Chem solar battery is only available to new Sunrun consumers. We can’t install rooftop solar panels or a home battery if you already have an existing solar installation or if it isn’t offered in your area.