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The Oak Shade and Durango developments will be connected to form two microgrids, self-contained power systems that can operate independently of California’s grid if it fails. 

The Oak Shade and Durango developments will be connected to form two microgrids, self-contained power systems that can operate independently of California’s grid if it fails. 

 Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg

Green
Greener Living

Is This Experimental Green Suburb the Future of Single-Family Housing?

Some 200 homes under construction in California come with solar panels, heat pumps and batteries, forming microgrids that cut energy costs and emissions.

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At first glance, Durango at Shadow Mountain looks like just another cookie-cutter subdivision of new homes sprawling across an arid valley in Menifee, California, a rapidly growing exurb 90 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

Walk into a $577,990 model home on Hopscotch Drive, though, and the possible future of low-carbon, climate-resilient housing comes into view behind the stucco and faux-stone facade. In the garage, a sleek white battery attached to one wall stores electricity generated by the 16 solar panels on the roof. Next to the battery is an electric vehicle charger, and some homeowners will have the ability to tap their car’s battery to supply additional energy to their house — an experiment to transform EVs into mobile power plants.

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