With foreclosures rising and home prices diving, there is a bright spot in California's residential real estate market: Solar-powered homes are starting to outsell traditionally electrified new homes in several markets, and developers are stepping up their use of the technology.
Perhaps it's only fitting for a state that so openly celebrates its sunshine. Still, the growing popularity of household solar power is an encouraging sign for the thousands of solar enthusiasts and vendors gathering in Long Beach this week.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, October 06, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 31 words Type of Material: Correction
Solar homes: A Sept. 25 article in the Business section about sales of solar-powered homes misspelled the name of a SunPower Corp. executive as Julie Blumden. Her last name is Blunden.
"Those builders are seeing that they'll get more buyers coming to their developments when they have solar. They sell like hot cakes," said Bernadette del Chiaro, energy specialist at the advocacy group Environment California.
Julie Blumden, a vice president at SunPower Corp., a San Jose-based manufacturer of solar roof tiles, said builders using solar were selling homes faster than nonsolar competitors -- an important factor in a slow market. "The increase in sales velocity is actually paying for the solar systems," she said.
SunPower, which sells its solar tiles to builders including Lennar Homes and Grupe Co., said it had orders to provide solar systems for 3,000 new homes in California in the coming years.
"The last time we saw interest in solar that was anything close to this was back in the 1980s, the first time there were federal tax credits for solar energy," said Julia Judd Hamm, executive director of the Solar Electric Power Assn. and co-chair of the Solar Power 2007 conference underway at the Long Beach Convention Center. "But the numbers then aren't even comparable to what we're seeing now."
Solar power is hotter than ever, helped by California's ambitious Million Solar Roofs rebate program, federal tax credits and growing public and political support for renewable power of all kinds. The U.S. solar industry saw record growth last year, with California the largest market by far, according to a study by the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development. And 2007 is shaping up to be another big year, industry officials say.
The boom also has swelled the community of solar products and pitchmen.
Both will be on display at the solar conference and expo, which is expected to draw more than 11,000 attendees in Long Beach, up from 8,500 at last year's event in San Jose, organizers say. Tonight, the show is free to the public from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
