Builders are responding to new demand for energy efficient, clean energy homes with their own battery system for backup in the event of power outages. In California in particular, the demand is driven by California’s 2020 Solar Mandate that requires all newly built homes to install solar photovoltaic systems.
Four home construction firms– Beazer Homes, CC Homes, Meritage Homes and Toll Brothers—have contracted with SunPower to install Equinox solar systems on nearly 1,000 homes in eight states.
The SunPower Equinox system, which has been sold since 2016, features all SunPower-made products from the panels to the microinverters to the racking system to the monitoring hardware and software.
“Forward-thinking builders who incorporate a renewable infrastructure from day one can reduce the cost of homeownership, provide a shield against rising energy bills and positively address climate change,” said Matt Brost, vice president of New Homes sales for SunPower.
Meritage Homes began installing SunPower systems on California homes but will soon begin including solar as a standard feature on single-family homes and townhomes across the greater Denver area.
Toll Brothers, Inc. expanded its national agreement with SunPower to include not only California, but now Nevada, New York and Massachusetts.
Beazer Homes plans to add SunPower solar to 125 homes across Maryland and Delaware including the Chase Oaks development in Lewes, Delaware and all future homes built at Holly Farms in Parkville, Maryland. SunPower reports that all the homes in these communities will be certified by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as a DOE Zero Energy Ready Home. Beazer Homes has committed to ensuring that by the end of 2025 every home they build will meet the requirements of the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home program.
For a home to achieve DOE Zero Energy Ready Home status it must meet rigorous efficiency and performance requirements including generating enough energy to offset the home’s use. Most types of new homes in the U.S. are eligible to participate in the program, and the homes are verified by a qualified third-party as part of the certification process.
“Our collaboration with SunPower Solar will provide additional energy cost savings and bring Beazer homeowners one step closer to realizing net zero energy usage,” says Chance Hall, division president for Beazer Homes in Maryland.
CC Homes is now offering SunPower’s solar systems to all homeowners in their communities in South Florida. The collaboration is expected to retrofit hundreds of households within CC Homes’ communities with SunPower’s solar panels, along with equipping new construction with solar.
Also read about an all-electric, solar-equipped community in Vermont here.
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Home generation is the answer to current grid overload. Think about this, as a solar producer of all my electric needs, with battery backup, I would have to overproduce more than twice my electric needs before putting any kind of extra stress on the grid. Building a large solar farm is fine. Not having the grid capacity to handle production is a problem. This is much like building a giga factory and having no roads in place to accommodate the traffic!
I think a sustainable house will need to be earth sheltered, and super insulated. It should include a sheltered greenhouse as well. Home generated power will be crucial for survival. When the power goes out, grid and/or home battery, then you’re camping, and a 115°F day will kill people if they’re not protected.
Also, it would be nice to be able to coordinated solar and battery systems for use in the household, transportation, and household appliances. The lawn mower might get 2 batteries while the bicycle gets 1 – something integrated so I don’t have to have many different proprietary systems (brands like DeWalt, Eco, Greenworks, etc. Thanks.