First-of-Its-Kind Zero Energy Community Breaks Ground in Prince George’s County, Helping To Advance Energy Equity in Low- to Moderate-Income Community

HYATTSVILLE, Md., October 16, 2023 /3BL/ - Housing Initiative Partnership, Inc. (HIP), a nonprofit affordable housing developer, along with Pepco, BlockEnergy™, and its public-private partners today celebrated the ground breaking of a new residential community in the Town of Fairmount Heights. The community will feature six zero energy single-family homes, powered by a BlockEnergy advanced community microgrid energy system, and a pocket park that celebrates the rich history of this historic town.

In addition to powering the homes, the innovative community microgrid system helps increase reliability, security, and resilience for Pepco’s local grid.

“HIP is always focused on developing affordable housing that is both healthy and highly energy efficient in older neighborhoods across Prince George’s County,” said Stephanie Prange Proestel, HIP’s Deputy Director. “Our work with the Town of Fairmount Heights, a historic African American community, as well as BlockEnergy and Pepco, is an opportunity to integrate green building techniques and passive design with an innovative microgrid to benefit low- and moderate-income homebuyers.”

HIP anticipates completion of the new homes in the Spring of 2024. HIP will market the homes to first-time homebuyers earning 80 percent or less of the area median income and requires pre-purchase housing counseling and coaching to ensure that the buyers are ready for the challenges and rewards that go with responsible ownership.

The BlockEnergy advanced community microgrid energy system will enable production of rooftop solar combined with local battery energy storage for the new homeowners without added upfront cost or maintenance needed by the homeowners. With those capabilities, residents will experience reduced impacts from extreme weather and other events that affect electric grids. The subdivision will be the first BlockEnergy community in Maryland and the third in the United States. As the first low-to-moderate (LMI) community connected to BlockEnergy, the community will advance local and national energy equity efforts.

“As communities across America face increasing threats from climate change, which can disproportionately affect our most vulnerable communities, the Fairmount Heights Net Zero community will provide a replicable and scalable, model for providing affordable, clean, sustainable energy to LMI communities,” said Rob Bennett, founder and CEO of BlockEnergy. “We are thrilled to break ground on this project with Pepco and HIP and demonstrate what is possible when public and private sectors work together to distribute clean and reliable community-based energy in neighborhoods like Fairmount Heights all while helping meet de-carbonization goals.”

The development of the community microgrid is a step forward in Fairmount Heights’ efforts to earn certification from Sustainable Maryland, a program for Maryland municipalities that want to have clean energy, mitigate energy inflation risk and take steps to sustain their quality of life over the long term.

Using modular construction, the six single-family homes will be built in Fairmount Heights, designed to meet the U.S. Department of Energy’s Zero Ready Energy standards and the Passive House Institute’s PHIUS+ 2018 standard. These rigorous requirements ensure energy cost stability, comfort, health, and durability.

Pepco will own, operate, and maintain the microgrid as a system, including the battery storage element. BlockEnergy will design and build the microgrid using their BlockEnergy™ system, while also owning and maintaining the community solar. For the first two years after residents move into the new homes, Pepco will operate the microgrid as a pilot with support from BlockEnergy, collecting data for specific metrics related to the system to characterize the benefits to Pepco’s overall power distribution system and ways similar systems could be integrated to the energy grid to further benefit customers.

“Systemic inequality has positioned some communities to be disproportionately impacted by climate change and we are committed to working with local partners to find innovative solutions to drive equity and advance cleaner energy options for our customers and the communities we serve,” said Tyler Anthony, president and CEO of Pepco Holdings. “We couldn’t make a project like this happen without partners like HIP, BlockEnergy and the many local leaders who have shared their support. We look forward to the grand opening of this community and providing a more sustainable housing development for residents to call home.”

HIP’s Development Team for the Fairmount Heights Zero Energy homes and microgrid project includes: Warren Builds, Beracah Homes, Peabody + Fine Architects, Applied Civil Engineering, Groundsmith Collective, Pando Alliance, Pepco and BlockEnergy. The Funding Partners include: Prince George’s County Redevelopment Authority, Prince George’s County Department of Housing & Community Development, State of Maryland Department of Housing & Community Development, Maryland Energy Administration, National Fair Housing Alliance, and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC).

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About HIP 
Housing Initiative Partnership (HIP) develops innovative affordable housing, revitalizes neighborhoods, and equips people to achieve their housing and financial goals. Based in Hyattsville, Maryland, HIP builds affordable apartments and homes and provides a full range of housing and financial counseling services to renters, first-time buyers, and homeowners.

About Pepco 
Pepco is a unit of Exelon (Nasdaq: EXC), a Fortune 250 company and the nation’s largest utility company, serving more than 10 million customers. Pepco provides safe and reliable energy service to approximately 919,000 customers in the District of Columbia and Maryland. Readers are encouraged to visit The Source, Pepco’s online newsroom.

About BlockEnergy 

Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, BlockEnergy is the world’s first distributed renewable energy platform for new communities of all sizes. A truly plug-and-play energy system, BlockEnergy is comprised of a simple kit of parts, able to be installed by local utilities to deliver the most advanced, secure, resilient power available. Scalable, storm-resilient, and able to interoperate seamlessly with the local grid when needed, BlockEnergy allows new communities to benefit from a seamless platform combining rooftop solar, energy storage, and smart distributed controls.