There's a long-held belief in homebuilding that energy-efficient, solar-powered housing costs too much to be affordable. A nonprofit in Faribault and the builder it works with have now done it twice.
Community Action Center, a social service agency and food shelf serving Faribault and Northfield, opened Ridgeview Heights in downtown Faribault in September. According to MPR News, the eight-unit development mixes subsidized housing, affordable housing and emergency housing for people experiencing homelessness. The homes are net zero, and the nonprofit says they will eventually run entirely on renewable energy.
Katurah Carr, the first tenant to move in, rents a three-bedroom townhouse for about $1,800 a month with utilities included. She told MPR she hadn't seen anything close to that price in Faribault, a town of about 25,000 about an hour south of the Twin Cities. "It's affordable and they're so nice," she said.
How they did it
Ridgeview Heights is CAC's second project like this. The first, Hillcrest Village in Northfield, began renting in 2022. It has 17 apartments and townhouses on a cul-de-sac, with 16 kept affordable for lower-income families and one reserved for emergency housing. CAC calls it a first-in-the-nation net-zero-energy emergency shelter and supportive housing development, with all of its electricity coming from on-site solar panels.
Schmidt Homes developed both sites, MPR reported. Co-owner Steve Schmidt admitted he was a skeptic at first. "I was looking at it as, 'OK, we're going to build affordable housing. That means we build typical affordable housing that we're all used to, which is vinyl siding and cheap windows and minimal insulation, just barely meeting code,'" he said. "[I told him] it wasn't going to work."
Scott Wopata, CAC's former director, pushed back. He said many builders and developers believed net zero would add 30% to 40% to the cost of a typical build, and he wanted to prove that wrong.
Schmidt's team worked with the University of Minnesota's sustainable building research center. The breakthrough was a double-wall system with heavy insulation in between, which makes the homes nearly airtight except for ventilation. The small amount of electricity needed to heat and cool them can come from solar panels on the site.
Wopata estimates they spent only about 7% more on construction to reach net zero, and saved another 4% to 5% through Xcel Energy rebates. On the Faribault units this year, the designers and builders were able to push the design even further, MPR reported.
"This is too good of information for us to keep," Schmidt said. "We need to share this with other people so other people know how to build this." He has brought other local builders on board.
More on the way
Dan Handeen, a research fellow at the university's sustainable building center, said he's seeing more developers move into net zero. Upfront costs can be higher, he said, but low utility bills can make up for it, and well-insulated homes tend to be quieter, more comfortable and have better air quality. "It's a win-win as long as you can get the thing built in the first place," he said.
Wopata, who is now community development director for the city of Northfield, said a private developer plans to build another net-zero project in Northfield next year.
Why it matters for Contractors
The numbers from these two projects are worth knowing: roughly 7% extra on construction, partly offset by 4% to 5% in utility rebates, compared with the 30% to 40% premium many builders assume. If those figures hold up, net zero is a lot closer to standard practice than many people think.
The work itself is different, though. Double-wall framing, dense insulation, airtight detailing, mechanical ventilation, all-electric systems and solar arrays take crews who are willing to learn and willing to be careful. Moisture is the big risk in a tight wall; the university's team ran a moisture analysis on the Hillcrest Village wall design to make sure condensation wouldn't lead to mold.
For framers, insulation contractors, electricians, HVAC installers and solar crews in southern Minnesota, this is a skill set with growing demand. Schmidt is already sharing what he learned, so a call to the builders involved, or to the university's center, is a good place to start.