Florida grid-free community harnesses solar to keep power on through hurricanes

Pearl Homes CEO Marshall Gobuty has been on a mission to create solar-powered communities that are essentially outage-proof during hurricanes. 

After years of research and development, it’s finally coming to fruition with Hunters Point, an 86-development located within Cortez, Florida. The area is not only a flood zone, but also a hurricane hot spot. For Gobuty, it was the perfect area to test whether a community running on clean energy could keep its lights on during hurricanes. 

Rather than being hocked into the local power company’s grid, Gobuty told FOX Business that Hunter’s Point has its own independent battery and power system. 

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The way it works is a home’s solar panel powers a battery and at sunset, the battery kicks in and operates the entire home throughout the night. 

“What we’ve done is we’ve taken solar power, and now we’ve added a battery,” Gobuty said. 

Pearl Homes develops properties in the Hunter’s Point community to withstand hurricane-force winds and flooding. (Pearl Homes)

The homes have already proven resilient in the face of both Hurricane Ian in 2022 and Hurricane Idalia, which caused destruction in the state last month.

In both cases, the power stayed on while surrounding neighborhoods were blacked out. Meanwhile, up to 565,000 utility customers in Florida lost power because of Idalia, which flooded towns from Tampa – near Hunters Point – to Tallahassee, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

“We’ve had 2597cc9f-93ce-50b3-99ea-13686e502d7b five winds and… the power has stayed on because we have a battery,” Gobuty said. “The best thing for us is that when we go into this hurricane, we’re able to manage the power use.” 

Floodwaters from Hurricane Idalia in Gulfport, Florida, on Aug. 30, 2023. (Juan Manuel Barrero Bueno/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

In fact, a home was able to operate for two weeks off of the grid, he added. Gobuty also made the homes 9 feet off the ground, beyond the 3 feet needed in a flood zone, to ensure the homes were protected during excessive rain. 

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Each lot is 3,300 square feet, and every home has an interior space of more than 1,650 square feet. The starting price of one of the homes sits at $1.45 million, but they can cost as much as $1.8 million.

Still, the demand is there, Gobuty said. There are 32 homes under construction and 18 of them are already occupied. The average sales time has been about 34 days, according to Gobuty. 

A home developed by Pearl Homes in the Hunter’s Point community in Cortez, Florida.  (Pearl Homes)

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“The consumer wants to live in a home that they don’t have to worry about,” he said. “They will spend more money now so they don’t have to worry about it in the future because insurance rates are going crazy… some Florida markets aren’t even offering flood insurance.”

The other key feature of these homes is that they have a zero carbon footprint. 

After Pearl Homes constructed a test model of the home at a Research and Design Center, the company began to realize that the home was generating more power than what was being consumed. As a result, they were able to take the surplus power and push it back to the utility. In turn, the utility was compensating the homeowners by buying their power, he added. 

A home developed by Pearl Homes in the Hunter’s Point community in Cortez, Florida.  (Pearl Homes )

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Gobuty recognizes that he can only do so much as a medium-sized regional builder, but hopes to inspire other builders to do the same.

 “This is what we have to do,” he said. 

Pearl Homes is about to begin constructing the next 56 homes.