One Chapel Hill resident is working towards building North Carolina’s very first net-zero energy neighborhood.
Jodi Bakst is the owner of Real Estate Experts in Chapel Hill. Since the start of 2019, she has been hard at work developing North Carolina’s first 100 percent net-zero energy residential community in Orange County.
Bakst is developing Array, a 12-lot neighborhood located on 60 acres of land off Orange Grove Road just minutes west of downtown Carrboro and Chapel Hill. Bakst said creating an energy-efficient neighborhood in Orange County is ideal and timely for several reasons.
“I think that the location of this property being in Orange County – you have a preponderance of people that really do care about the environment and care about living sustainably,” Bakst said. “Then from a timing perspective, with the way that things are going with respect to climate change, and how fast things are moving in a negative direction, this is the perfect time for the residential building industry to show people that it is possible to build a home with a significantly reduced carbon footprint.”
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, buildings consume 40 percent of the nation’s energy and 25 percent of the nation’s freshwater.
Bakst said Array’s net-zero energy homes will produce as much energy as they consume as well as meet aggressive targets for water conservation and indoor air quality. Each house will also be third party certified based on the National Green Building Standards.
“The houses that we’re talking about in Array, which are very achievable to build, are about 90 percent more efficient than a standard code-build house,” Bakst said. “What makes it net-zero energy is when you add in the solar.”
According to Array’s website, PV solar panels will be specifically sized for each energy-efficient home in the Array neighborhood. Array’s 12 lots are positioned with a north-south orientation to make maximum use of the sun and its natural energy.
In addition to solar panels, Bakst said these homes will also have continuous insulation to keep utility costs even lower. While initially more expensive to build, she said these homes are more economical in the long run.
“You do spend more money upfront but you’re spending less money to maintain your house,” Bakst said. “You have almost zero energy costs. With the net-zero energy model, there will be net metering. So each house will be tied to the grid with Duke Power, but the excess energy that you’re creating goes to the grid for storage and then for peak times for peak demand – when you need more energy – it [the energy] gets called back from the grid.”
Bakst said Duke Power will charge $14 dollars a month for each house to be connected to the grid, and that will be the sole utility cost. Other standard utilities like water and sewer will come at no additional cost as a well and septic system will be built into the neighborhood.
While net-zero energy houses are being built sporadically, Bakst said the Array neighborhood will be one of the first of its kind in the whole country. Right now, she has one of the twelve Array lots reserved. Bakst said she hopes to get the storm water and erosion control permits approved by January – the next step into making her net-zero energy neighborhood a reality.
For more details about the Array neighborhood, click here.
Lead photo via Array Sustainable Living.
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Although this seems like a great idea, there are two issues I have with this project – unaffordability and so called “green technology”. Why is it that green housing means unaffordable housing? Everyone should have the ability to live sustainably, not just the wealthy. Furthermore, green technology doesn’t help the environment; in fact, it is one of the causes of environmental damage. The production of solar panels and other “green” technology requires the burning of fossil fuels. The greenest thing we can all do is 1) build passive solar housing or 2) don’t build at all; live in an old house that doesn’t require removing trees and construction that damages and depletes the soil.
‘NC’s First net zero energy neighborhood’ would have been a much better headline. Claiming “First in the state” implies that “sustainable green neighborhood” is a binary category, and it’s simply not. Journalism as a whole would be much more trustworthy if papers stopped making imprecise or untrue claims in the headlines and then trying to clarify in the body
We agree with your statement. Array is not the first green or sustainable neighborhood in North Carolina. Array will be the first Net Zero Energy Neighborhood! Thank you for clarifying this point.
Technologies that can be used to create reasonably priced energy efficient homes exist. In particular I recommend straw bale, and
earth sheltered construction, and ground source heat pumps.
Photovoltaic panels are now available at such low cost, that installation including materials, and permitting are more than half the total cost of an installation. The obvious strategy to lower cost is to attack the permitting cost, since it adds no value for the owner.
We agree completely. It would also be nice if tax incentives were increased to previous levels for the implementation of energy efficient products and technologies. This will help to make this more affordable for people.
Thank you for your reply. The houses will be built to the National Green Building Standards and will have many passive house elements. The houses will be 90% more efficient than a code-built home. Houses that are far more energy efficient will need a smaller solar array to reach net zero energy.
In this market, highly energy efficient homes are being built by custom builders. It is true, right now, the cost of these homes is more expensive. As the building standards and energy standards for home change, and these homes are built more at scale, we will see the prices come down.
Mississippi is working on building a “smart neighborhood.” See https://bit.ly/33CmpLm. Here, the Mississippi Power, the municipality and Tesla are behind this. We would love to get the right support here in Orange County, NC to see something like this happen here.
Regarding the environmental responsibility of solar, the basic ingredient for a solar panel is silicon which is found in ordinary sand. In order to be able to extract and use this, a high temperature is needed for a short time, which unfortunately in the US still achieved with deploying natural gas however alternatives such as bio fuel and hydrogen are on the rise.
The production of silica from sand is done in minutes, while the life span of a panel is at least 30 years. It is worth transitioning from fossil fuel to solar from a perspective of the total savings of fossil fuel usage over the panel’s lifespan.
Thank you again for your comments.
I would have thought Earthhaven Ecovillage to be Net Zero. Is it that it doesn’t count as a subdivision or neighborhood that it wouldn’t qualify for the title?