Albuquerque’s SunState Solar and Westway Homes unveiled a new series of homes at Mesa del Sol on Thursday with 100% electric features and solar panels — designed to drastically reduce emissions and utility costs. Two of 12 homes have been completed as part of a first phase.
The “eco-series” homes south of the Albuquerque International Sunport each come pre-equipped with 7.5 kilowatts of solar power and an electric vehicle charging station. Solar powered homes are a desirable option as the city averages 310 sunny days a year.
“The system size that we have on those homes should be adequate to offset 100% of [electric] consumption, or damn close to it,” Glenn Felty, the CEO of SunState Solar, said. “That’s when you start to achieve net-zero [emissions].”
Net-zero emissions are typically achieved through a combination of emission reduction and emission removal. Homes that are all electric have other benefits, Felty said, in that they produce fewer emissions than gas powered homes and usually require less maintenance. In addition, electric-power is less expensive to operate in the long run when sourced from solar panels.
Most Albuquerque homes are a combination of gas and electric power.
The “eco-series” homes are three-bedroom, two-bathroom, and come with a two-car garage and an electric vehicle charging station. Sizes fall between 1,704-to-1,898 square feet and prices range from $469,900 to $499,900.
Felty said he thinks the “eco-series” represents a first for a production home builder in Albuquerque.
“This is the first time that solar has been integrated and built-in,” he said. “These are homes that are built with the intent of being environmentally conscious with a low-carbon footprint — from the building materials to the insulation and the electric appliances.”
An open house is scheduled for Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2225 Dekooning Ave. SE. Mesa del Sol is a master-planned community located on the city’s southeast mesa.
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Photos by Roberto E. Rosales
Mesa del Sol broke ground in 2007 with the intent to build 37,000 homes. The last I looked in 2024, there’s about 250 homes. I would call that development 17 years later a complete and utter disaster.
Thank you to Mesa del Sol for taking advantage of our sunny days and building in solar to their new homes. What a savings this will be for home owners.
I also wonder if they have thought about water savings. For instance, installing the home gutters to make it easy to catch and reuse rain water and also installing a drain out of the house to reuse washing machine water. Simple to do when building a new home but expensive to add later. I’m sure there are other water saver methods I haven’t mentioned.