Brad Pitt's Make It Right houses are challenging the way New Orleans homeowners think about solar energy

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Brad Pitt's Make It Right houses are challenging the way New Orleans homeowners think about solar energy
September 26, 2010
Richard Thompson
The Times-Picayune

Before settling back on Tennessee Street, Ann Parfaite heard from neighbors that her future home, loaded with green building features like solar panels and rain-water collectors, would help cut her electricity bills by a third or more.
makeitrightsolar.jpgThe Times-PicayuneSolar panels on the roof of Make It Right houses in the 9th Ward significantly reduce energy bills.

"I was hoping they were telling me the truth," said Parfaite, who purchased a three-bedroom, two-bath home last year in Brad Pitt's Make It Right development in the Lower 9th Ward, built in the same place Parfaite had lived for more than four decades until her home was destroyed when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans five years ago,
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Her neighbors, it turns out, were right.

Parfaite says her monthly power costs are a fraction of what she used to pay. Last month, her power bill hovered around $80. In cooler months like April and May, or October and November, when temperatures begin to level out, her bills stay around $40.

Collins Foots, who lives just up the block, has been likewise impressed.

"Sometimes, my bill will be $24 or $25, even in these hot summer months," said Foots, a retired truck driver who lives by himself in a similar setup on Tennessee Street, which he purchased from the nonprofit in late 2008.

$8.69 August energy bills

A few of their neighbors have paid even less: By May, Make It Right houses had operated at or near net-zero energy consumption 27 different times, meaning a homeowner generated almost as much, or more, electricity than necessary to power the home, said spokeswoman Taylor Royle.

Citywide, Entergy New Orleans, which stands to lose money if many people switch to solar, has counted 25 houses to hit that self-sustaining plateau in the three years since the so-called "net meters" became available.

"It could have been as little as one time, and some of it could have been multiple times," said Jolen Stein, a spokeswoman for Entergy New Orleans.

Those households pay only the electric base rate and additional general fees approved by the City Council, which would have totaled $8.69 in August.

In a city where the average family income barely topped $37,000 last year and 23 percent of people live below the poverty line, the potential savings could make a big difference, observers say, especially as recent government research showed the New Orleans metropolitan area's median monthly cost of housing has risen nearly 33 percent, from $662 in 2004 to $882 in 2009.

Their low bills come as most residents in southeastern Louisiana have seen a slight increase in their recent utility expenses, because of the rising price of natural gas and above-average temperatures for much of the summer, the peak power usage season.

What's more, a third of the 150 specialty meters installed in New Orleans have been set up in homes in the Lower 9th Ward, according to Entergy New Orleans, sending a signal to local housing officials and renewable energy advocates that solar and other energy-efficient technologies are beginning to take hold in the rebuilding city.

"It's really just an outstanding accomplishment for any city in the country," said Beth Galante, executive director of the New Orleans office of Global Green USA. "But particularly New Orleans, five years after Hurricane Katrina, and of course the Lower 9th Ward."

Keeping power use in check

The success of the new energy-efficient technologies being installed, however, depends to some extent on the commitment of homeowners to keeping their power usage in check.
And duplicating the same high-design standards on a larger scale will be a challenge, according to Jon Luther, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans.

"I think it's a misconception to think that we've arrived," Luther said. "We're not even close, in my viewpoint, and I think what would help is to get more people in the private industry involved."

For its part, Entergy officials have spent years preaching to customers about managing their power use more efficiently, and the utility offers energy-saving solutions for customers, like on-site energy assessments and weatherization tips.

Since the Make It Right homes are all built to the same green construction standards under a nationally recognized rating system, known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, project officials say that if one home can achieve net zero with its energy consumption, they all can.

Realistically, they say, reaching that environmental utopia will depend on the conservation habits of homeowners.

Pitt, the actor and part-time French Quarter resident who has become a passionate advocate for rebuilding the storm-ravaged neighborhood, hopes to build 150 of the storm-resistant, energy-efficient houses in the years to come.

"I think the Make it Right is a great example of somewhat altering the preconceived notion that solar energy is intended for upper-class citizens," said Pierre Moses, a product analyst in the construction department of the project. "I think that the benefits of solar extend much further with low-income families in distressed neighborhoods, because of that huge decrease in disposable income on a monthly basis."

Solar panels are not the sole reason that the more than three-dozen homes in the development are capable of becoming net zero, according to renewable energy advocates.

To help reduce utility costs, they recommend installing insulation; sealing air leaks; upgrading appliances; and keeping thermostats at 78 degrees, because each degree below that increases bills by 3 percent.

'Gets them really excited'

But in some cases, the allure of solar panels proves to be the hook for getting local residents to take on more modest improvements, said Forest Bradley-Wright, senior program director at the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

"I've seen a strong interest in doing something about those energy bills, and people really take to the notion of solar power," he said. "So when folks come to learn from our workshops, they generally want to know about solar. It's what gets them really excited."

And after exploring solar technologies, renewable energy advocates like Bradley-Wright often steer conversations with homeowners to other energy-efficiency techniques, "which maybe just isn't quite as exciting," he said, laughing.

That's evident in the design of the Make It Right homes, which incorporate a range of energy-saving technologies. "We pride ourselves on having a pretty strong thermal barrier around all of our houses," Moses said. "That's important when you're trying to meet standards like LEED platinum, like we've mandated in our project."

And when a homeowner generates more electricity than is necessary to power the home in a month, unused credits roll over to the next month, which can help during the swing from spring to summer, or fall to winter. Solar power production also generally remains strong in the spring and fall, even though temperatures are more moderate during those seasons.

"They can usually get a lot of extended benefits from their solar in the spring and the fall, when their home's energy consumption is down, but their solar production is as high as it was in the other months," Moses said. "You'll see a bigger dip in energy consumption during those seasons, but the solar will stay pretty linear."

Tax credits have also served as a draw for some Louisiana homeowners, which refund as much as 50 percent of the first $25,000 spent on a range of technologies, including solar hot water and electric as well as wind generators. Federal tax credits cover up to 30 percent of the cost of a system.

Usually, most homeowners in the Make It Right development will roll over "a couple hundred" kilowatt hours from one month to the next, which Moses estimated can add up to $50 to $60 in savings. "It all depends on the energy consumption of the home," he said.

Green spreading, but slowly

The New Orleans metropolitan area has lost 13 percent of its housing stock since the 2005 hurricane, according to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and as the city comes to terms with its massive blight problem, local environmentalists, home builders and renewable energy advocates say the Make It Right development has been a model for further rebuilding, with more and more developers including solar as a standard in their projects.

"It was a wonderful catalyst process, not just for that, but for people throughout the city to really start to learn what green building is, and how it can save so much money and make everyone so much healthier," said Global Green's Galante.

In 2006, Global Green began developing a multi-use community in Holy Cross that included energy-saving measures such as solar panels on all the buildings, high-efficiency air conditioners and heating units, weather sealing to prevent loss of cool air in summer and heat in winter and energy-saving appliances.

So far, five single-family houses have been built, and in the coming months, Galante expects to start offering the homes for sale in the $130,000-to-150,000 price range.

Though it's still unoccupied, one of the houses, built in 2008, has been running at net-zero throughout the year, Galante said, with hotter summer and cooler winter months offset by the additional energy generated in the spring and fall.

Two years later, Foots said he has learned a lot about energy-efficiency, just from hanging around the house.

"I really didn't know too much about solar," he said, "but now that I've experienced it, I think everybody should have it on their house.