Durango at Shadow Mountain is a new planned community 90 miles southeast of Los Angeles. That’s not news. New communities in the Golden State are popping up everywhere. What makes this one different is that all 78 homes are designed to be energy efficient and resilient. Every rooftop has 16 solar panels. Every garage features an energy storage battery, an electric car charger and a heat pump water heater. The homes are heated and cooled by a heat pump. The kitchens all feature inductive stoves and high efficiency appliances. Add it all up and the developer, KB Home, says these houses should use 40% less electricity than a conventional new home.
That’s good news, but it’s not the main story here. What is noteworthy is that all the new houses from KB Home will be connected to form a microgrid that can operate independently of California’s creaky utility grid. According to Bloomberg Green (email), another 141 homes being built by KB Home in an adjacent subdivision called Oak Shade at Shadow Mountain will feature a second microgrid. The two developments will share a 2.3 megawatt-hour “community battery” to provide additional power in the event of an outage.