Two Maine companies are partnering to build 10 solar-powered houses for low- and moderate-income residents who have been priced out of the local housing market.
Zero Energy Homes and Maker Construction teamed up to create 10 new energy-efficient homes in 2025 and 2026. The homes will be modular, meaning they will be made in pieces at an off-site facility, then moved and assembled on a foundation.
Zero Energy Homes, based in Mount Desert Island, specializes in building homes with 80 percent Maine-sourced materials, such as wood-fiber insulation from TimberHP and pine clapboards, flooring and trim from Robbins Lumber. The structures are also outfitted with solar panels that generate as much energy as the home uses.
“We’re trying to keep as much of this home as close to home as possible,” said Steve Eaton, vice president of operations for Zero Energy Homes.
Hebron-based Maker Construction is an off-site construction company.
The homes could be placed anywhere in Maine where a buyer either owns or plans to purchase land, Eaton said. The company is speaking with potential buyers from Cumberland to Hancock counties.
The 10 new homes will be an incremental step in helping Maine meet its goal of adding at least 76,400 units by 2030 to make up for underproduction and expected future population growth. The goal was set in the Maine Housing Production Needs Study, which was released in October 2023 by MaineHousing, the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation & Future and Department of Economic and Community Development.
A home placed on property the buyer already owns would cost between $275,000 to $350,000. The company hopes to serve people who earn too much to qualify for subsidized housing, but don’t make enough to afford a market-rate house in Maine, said Caroline Pryor, founder and president of Zero Energy Homes.
“Our mission as a company is to put homes in the hands of low- and middle-class Maine workers,” Eaton said. “This is an area of the market that has not been served well in the last 10 or 15 years, so we’re very passionate about bringing homes to that population.”
The cost of housing in Maine has leveled off in recent months after skyrocketing during and in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. The average cost of a home in Maine now sits at nearly $415,000, according to Zillow. In July 2020, Maine’s median home value was roughly $259,000.
The homes are designed to have roughly 900 square feet of living space with two bedrooms and one bathroom, Eaton said. However, the homes also have a staircase to an unfinished 700-square-foot second floor, which gives buyers flexibility to add another bedroom and bathroom if they choose.
The homes will also be outfitted with solar panels, which will generate electricity to run the heat pumps and utilities in the home. Pryor said buyers should also be eligible for Efficiency Maine rebates and federal solar tax credits.
“These are designed to be houses that will have no heating or electric bills while the solar array is active,” Eaton said.
Sourcing most of the building materials from Maine supports other local businesses and cuts down on the cost to transport materials, as 70 percent of modular homes now sold in Maine come from Pennsylvania, according to Pryor.
“That’s a long distance to truck it and eventually that cost is passed on to the home buyer,” Pryor said. “Building with local materials and transporting the homes and the workforce, is good for the bottom line and good in terms of carbon emissions.”
The companies already built a two-bedroom, one-bathroom demonstration home in Searsport. The 1,1596-square-foot home, which includes 896 square feet of living space on the first floor and 700 square feet of unfinished space on the second floor, is available for $275,000. The company hopes to sell it to a low-income family that earns about 80 percent of the area median income, Pryor said.
In Waldo County, where Searsport is, 80 percent area median income for a one person is $49,700 annually, or $59,800 for a two-person household, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In the coming years, Zero Energy Homes plans to build modular homes to increase its production and keep costs low for homebuyers. To do this, the company is looking to build a manufacturing facility next year in the Bangor, Belfast or Ellsworth region that would produce as many as 60 homes in its first five years of operation.
The company hasn’t yet found a site for that facility, Eaton said.
Correction: A previous version of this story listed inaccurate square footages for the homes.