Dive Brief:

• A developer in Hawaii has broken ground on a 410-home development along the island’s Gold Coast that will exist off the grid, according to the Pacific Business News.

• The project, Ainamalu, will include 350 homes and 60 condominiums with access to a community club and swimming pool. The community is zoned for vacation rentals and its units will be priced from $750,000.

• Housing units in the development will be outfitted with energy-efficient appliances and will feature rooftop photovoltaics from energy contractor Koloa and battery storage systems from Blue Planet Energy.

Dive Insight: 

Energy-efficient construction is slowly — but surely — making inroads in homebuilding. A recent survey by the National Association of Home Builders found that a minority of builders today are constructing homes to the requirements of green certification programs like the National Green Building Standard, LEED and local and state programs. However, recent moves are likely to help the green movement continue to gain traction.

For example, companies are taking up the task of sizing up energy efficiency. A recent partnership between the Residential Energy Services Network and the Appraisal Institute will see Home Energy Rating System scores included in some appraisals.

The trend is also spurring a greater incorporation of renewable energy systems like solar panels in home designs, with tax breaks and other incentives helping to boost demand for such products. According to the Solar Energy Industry Association, more than 1 million homes in the U.S. were equipped with rooftop PVs in 2016.

The adoption of rooftop PVs, specifically, still faces challenges due partly to cost and party to aesthetics. Scale is one solution for cost, so projects like Ainamalu's help to bolster product production and provide another use-case in the market for future development. 

Meanwhile, businesses are at work on aesthetics, with one such startup out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently announcing the development of a roof-mounted PV system that can display a custom image or replicate the design of the rooftop. Tesla has promised glass roofing shingles that will meld with the roof and, it says, be competitively priced.

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