Ten rooftop solar panels were one of the selling points of the Falmouth retirement community Fritz Farquhar and his wife chose to move into nine years ago.
The energy the solar panels generate in their independent living cottage at the OceanView help offset their electrical bill significantly, to the point where Farquhar only pays service charges in the summer, he said.
“I have apologized to my kids and grandkids for what my generation did to the environment,” Farquhar said. “I feel bad things that have happened on my watch and I’m glad to be in a place that’s tackling those issues.”
To meet a growing demand for efficient homes, OceanView, which offers both independent and assisted living as well as memory care services, is building nearly 40 new two-bedroom, two-bathroom units for older adults.
The project will add 34 all-electric, solar-powered apartments and three cottages to the community, all of which will be for people who still live independently, according to Mitchell DeBortoli, sustainability and operations coordinator at OceanView.
Construction began in April 2025 and is projected to finish early next year, but residents are already moving in as the homes become available, DeBortoli said.
The new homes fill a need for more housing for aging Mainers, as they allow them to downsize from larger houses that younger families need. But they also reveal a growing desire for more energy-efficient features on homes, either for cost-savings or environmental reasons, that developers and real estate agents are seeing throughout the state.
These new units aren’t the first effort by OceanView at Falmouth to add environmentally friendly features, DeBortoli said. The community offers 10 electric vehicle charging stations, has installed more than 120 heat pumps and has invested in off-site solar farms and rooftop panels.
“Focusing on the environment and integrating that into the lifestyle here is a big part of who we are,” DeBortoli said.
The desire for renewable energy systems in homes isn’t limited to southern Maine retirement communities.
Benjamin Hooper, owner of Little River Homes who’s developing dozens of homes in Belfast, said each house he builds has heat pumps, upgraded insulation and a “solar ready” roof. This means a home’s roof is built to withstand the weight of panels and the electrical wiring needed to operate them is already in place, so buyers can have the panels added for an additional fee.
The homes have been popular with many buyers so far, typically because they mean homes will have lower energy bills over time, Hooper said.
The average price of heating oil statewide sat at $4.42 per gallon as of last week, according to the Maine Department of Energy Resources. That’s a significant jump from five years ago when it cost roughly $2.60.
Meanwhile, more Mainers are choosing to warm their homes using propane and electricity and moving away from heating oil, data released earlier this year by the U.S. Census Bureau showed. Heating oil remains the most popular option statewide.
The number of Mainers heating their homes using electricity, like installing heat pumps, ticked up by more than 4% in 2020 to 2024 compared with the previous period, according to Census data.
“People are uncertain about the price of energy,” Hooper said. “If you have a house that generates its own energy, it doesn’t matter what prices do.”
Julie Williams, owner and CEO of Bangor-based ERA Dawson Bradford Co., said Maine homebuyers have sought properties with energy-efficient features like solar panels and geothermal heating systems for decades.
Even before demand for Maine homes hit a fever pitch during the pandemic, Williams said buyers looked for homes with electric vehicle chargers.
“If that feature wasn’t available on the property, buyers would have contractors install the chargers after the purchase,” Williams said.