Arizona retirees might start calling their golden years, solar years—at least if they buy a new home from Del Webb’s Sun City Festival or Sun City Anthem at Merrill Ranch in Florence. Each new retirement home built in the communities will have a photovoltaic array installed at no extra charge to the buyer.

“The green-standard features represent the largest new home solar offering in the state and responds to Baby Boomers' desire both to be green and to reduce the overall operational costs of their homes,” the company said in a press release.

In all, 11,200 homes with photovoltaics are planned for the communities. The Festival community could see as many as 7,200 solar homes and Merrill Ranch could see as many as 4,000 solar homes, said Del Webb spokesperson Jacque Petroulakis.

The new homes will join other homes already built in the communities, some of which already have solar.

“Both communities opened in 2006. Then we started offering solar as an option last year. Then we made it standard,” Petroulakis said.

The homes will feature a 1.8-kilowatt (kW), roof-mounted SunPower array. But buyers can choose to upgrade the array if they want, Petroulakis said.

“It is going to vary by the floor plan, but the standard 1.8-kW solar energy system will provide 3060 kW hours of electricity, which can be up to 30 percent of the home’s energy use,” she said.

The arrays are grid-tied and net-metered, allowing the homeowners to realize additional savings on their electric bills when their system produces more power than they need.

“We are not increasing the base pricing; we maximized the incentives we’re getting from the providers and from local municipalities,” Petroulakis said.

The cost and size of the homes in the communities range from $134,900 and 1,099 square feet to more than $350,000 and 2,849 square feet, depending on the other features buyers want.

The homes are also designed to be as energy efficient as possible. The homes will also feature high-efficiency heating and cooling systems, CFLs, enhanced insulation, tankless water heaters and low-water-use toilets and fixtures, according to the company.

In all, the homes will have EPA and U.S. Department of Energy HERS (Home Energy Rating Score) scores below 50. And like the inevitable rounds of golf that some of the retirees will enjoy, a lower HERS score is better.