As retirement neared, Eric and Camela Moulder decided to downsize from their four-bedroom home in West Grove, Pa. They had two main goals: find a place near the beach, and reduce their living expenses.
When one of the couple’s three daughters told them about Heron’s Nest, a new cottage community in Shallotte, N.C., the Moulders were intrigued. The development, calling itself an “environmental village,” was a quick drive from Ocean Isle Beach, a barrier island near the South Carolina border, and the homes were reasonably priced, between $300,000 to $400,000.
The couple liked that each house came with a three-kilowatt rooftop solar system, which would reduce their carbon footprint and cut their utility bill by a third. But as they toured the 31-home community, they discovered that they were looking at North Carolina’s first residential “microgrid” development.
A microgrid is a network of buildings that essentially acts as a miniature power grid. It can operate outside of the larger municipal electrical system by ensuring backup power for the entire development, which can be produced by a solar array system and stored in a battery.
“The rooftop solar and the sense of security we got knowing that you’d have power during a storm sealed the deal for us,” said Mr. Moulder, 57, a semiretired inventory manager. The couple, who paid in the low $200,000s for their 1,350-square-foot, three-bedroom home, moved into the community last July.
The U.S. Energy Department estimated that there were more than 450 operational microgrids in the United States in 2022. But there is no central repository for such data, and Elham Akhavan, a senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy for energy and renewables industries, said there are likely more than 3,500 microgrids in 30 states.
Many have been built by government agencies, academic institutions and health care facilities, Ms. Akhavan said. But she predicts that residential microgrids will be quick to expand, as home developers opt to invest in power-resiliency projects and as states begin to offer funds and incentives. The California Public Utilities Commission, for one, recently approved a $200 million program to bring community microgrids to disadvantaged and tribal communities that are vulnerable to power outages.
Americans experienced an average of about seven hours of power interruptions in 2021. It was more in Louisiana, Oregon and Texas, where residents went without power anywhere between 20 and 80 hours during the year. Two-thirds of North Americans are at risk of energy shortfalls this summer, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit regulatory authority. Traditionally, homeowners buy generators as a backup power source. But developers are finding that energy-resilient homes and communities are powerful marketing tools to lure buyers and renters.
At Heron’s Nest, the 62-kilowatt solar system and 255-kilowatt-hour battery are maintained by the local utility, Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation. Homeowners get a monthly energy credit on their utility bills by signing an interconnection agreement with the utility, which controls their hot-water heaters and thermostats when there’s high power demand. If the local power grid is stressed and the utility believes a power outage is necessary, residents here will be able to keep their lights on.
Heron’s Nest is part of wider electric cooperative in North Carolina, a membership-based utility that allows customers, acting as shareholders, to benefit from revenue that is either diverted back into the utility or passed along as dividends. “This is why microgrids are very attractive to us, because when we lower the costs of maintaining the grid, the profit goes back to the customer as a lower utility bill,” said Nicky Nance, a key accounts and renewable specialist with Brunswick Electric.
Graham Adams, the developer of Heron’s Nest and the president of Adams Group Architects, long aspired to build sustainable and energy-resilient homes. A decade ago, when he approached six large home builders to inquire about developing a microgrid, the best proposal he got was to offer rooftop solar as an add-on feature.
“At that time, the builders all thought that the buyers saw more value in a nicer kitchen than a cut in their energy bill,” Mr. Adams said.
As the intensity of coastal storms and power outages increased, he stuck with his concept. After finding some land in Brunswick County, where prices remain lower than in other parts of the state, he went into business with his son, Brian Adams, who also has experience building solar projects. They tapped private investors to get Heron’s Nest off the ground in 2017 for $8 million.
The 31 homes at Heron’s Nest have…
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