Solar Village Homes creates prefab homes, PV included

Boulder, Colo.,-based Solar Village Homes is expanding its reach across the country as it makes inroads into a unique new market for solar: less expensive, prefabricated homes.

Most recently, the company completed an eight-home development near Boulder and teamed up with Epoch Homes of New Hampshire, to serve as the northeastern fabricator of Solar Village Homes.

“We had a gap in the northeast,” said Mark Kostovny, president of Solar Village Homes. People in northeastern states like Vermont, New Hampshire and New Jersey had requested Solar Village Homes, but the company needed a partner to fabricate the homes locally. “Epoch Homes has now been given those leads and is working through them.”

By using the savings accrued by pre-fabricating homes, Solar Village Homes can offer homes integrated with solar power at a lower price than some other options, like customizing or retrofitting a home for solar. And with advances in pre-fabrication design, the homes no longer look like cookie-cutter homes or homes that were delivered on a tractor trailer.

“We have on our website 5 models that are available now,” said Kostovny.

People can look at the models and do some customizations based on that. The company also offers a completely custom model based on the purchaser’s specifications.

According to Kostovny, the company also offers multiple family units, and Real Goods, a solar catalog, sells a version of Solar Village Homes’ designs as well.

Since its inception, the company has built 30 to 40 multi-family or condo units, 16 homes and has a lot in the planning stages, including a 500 unit development near Salida, Colo., development of which was put on hold when the economy dropped, Kostovny said.

The most recent, the Boulder development of eight homes, was completed earlier this week, and six of the eight homes are sold already.

“We’re getting a lot of interest from developers as a different way to build a home quickly and affordably,” he said.

According to Kostovny, prices for the homes range from about $200,000 to $500,000, solar included.

While the company normally doesn’t break down the cost of solar for the homes, he estimated that the average system, at 2.5 kilowatts, runs about $15,000, but with incentives and rebates, can cost the homeowner much less.

“We’re going for the masses,” Kostovny said. “Hopefully, we can get the quantity up and do it as a mainstream thing.”

Pictured: Solar Village Homes' Altos model in Decatur, Ind.