The solar way to construct track homes 

The Reynolds Landing community in Birmingham, Alabama, looks like any other newly constructed well-to-do neighborhood. It appears to represent another   U.S. suburbia. Except for the nearby 5-acre microgrid displaying rows of solar panels, a storage battery and backup natural gas generator. This equipment provides power to the community's new residents for a two-year energy trial the electric utility Alabama Power. The sold out homes in the Reynolds Landing Community neighborhood have access to the electrical grid maintained by Alabama Power and a solar power network for the neighborhood. Its also fitted with a natural gas-powered backup generator to generate more than 586,000 kilowatt hours of power yearly that’s sufficient to service neighborhood on its own.
 

Alters the construction of how to market homes 

Alabama Power partnered with Signature Homes to construct  houses to  interconnect  neighborhoods  with the microgrid web. Each home is also fitted with state-of-the-art, energy-efficient appliances that allows future residences to be 35 percent more energy efficient than a standard home. An interactive screen on each residents' refrigerators will provide information of how their home uses electricity. It gives exact breakdowns and statistics on how they're utilizing power. The project was borne out of a desire from Alabama Power to better understand microgrid and renewable energy options as U.S. technology become increasingly conscious. Microgrid technology has exploded since global revenues from microgrids jumped 29 percent between 2015 and 2016 to $6.8 billion, with revenues in the U.S. hitting $2.2 billion in 2016. The global microgrid market to be worth $17 billion in 2017. That total is expected to nearly double to $33 billion by 2023. Traditional utility providers have taken notice of the upstart energy option's growing viability. Many have attempted to set up research centers to educated themselves of  how to provide power to a population no longer depend on  energy grid.
 

Experimenting with microgrid options 

Riley is the director of the Penn State GridSTAR research center at the school's Navy Yard branch in Philadelphia. The GridSTAR Center funded through Department of Energy grants. Riley describes it, "we were able to build a microgrid with solar energy storage and all of the bells and whistles so we can learn and experience all of the things we could bring together." Penn State researchers experiment on developing their own clean and renewable power grid. Alabama Power continue experimenting with microgrid options to strive to  foster  a more resilient, predictable and possibly cleaner energy infrastructure.

If you want to move into the future and join the solar revolution, or if you want to find out what solar panels are right for you, go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. You can see how much a system will cost, and how much you can save over the next 20 years. For more information relating to going solar, don't forget to visit our solar blog section for more handy guides and articles.