Builders Making Solar a Standard Feature for New Homes
WASHINGTON — Four of the nation’s largest home builders have signed contracts with SunPower to pre-install its Equinox® solar systems in select communities across the country.
The move by the builders — Beazer Homes, CC Homes, Meritage Homes and Toll Brothers — is seen as signaling a rising prioritization of green and more sustainable energy in new home building.
Combined, the respective deals will apply to nearly 1,000 new homes across eight states.
“Builders are trying to appeal to today’s energy-conscious homebuyers who are concerned about the high cost of powering their homes,” said Matt Brost, vice president of New Homes sales for SunPower, in a written statement.
“Forward-thinking builders who incorporate renewable infrastructure from day one can reduce the cost of homeownership, provide a shield against rising energy bills and positively address climate change,” Brost said.
As a result of its new deal with SunPower, Meritage Homes Corporation, the fifth-largest public homebuilder in the U.S., expanded on the two company’s long-standing collaboration in California and extended it to residential communities in the greater Denver area in Colorado.
Similarly, Toll Brothers, a builder of luxury homes, will expand its solar offerings to include all new home communities in California, 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.
Each of these homes will be certified by the U.S. Department of Energy as a DOE Zero Energy Ready Home.
Beazer Homes is the first national homebuilder to commit to ensuring that by the end of 2025 every home they build will meet the requirements of the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home standard.
A DOE Zero Energy Ready Home is a high-performance home that is so energy efficient that a renewable energy system could offset most or all the home’s annual energy use.
CC Homes, one of the largest private builders in South Florida, is now offering SunPower’s solar systems to all homeowners in their communities who are interested in electrifying their home and making it more energy efficient.
The collaboration is expected to retrofit hundreds of households within CC Homes’ communities with SunPower’s solar panels, with plans to add solar into future builds from the onset.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue
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