The Michigan Public Service Commission has approved a DTE Energy pilot project involving a net-zero housing community in Ann Arbor called Veridian at County Farm.
The development is designed to produce at least as much energy, through renewable sources, as its residents consume.
All of the homes in the development are heated and cooled primarily with electricity from solar panels, with help from a geothermal system, which uses the ground’s year-round stable temperature to help heat or cool a building as needed. The excess electricity that homeowners produce is stored in home batteries for later use when the sun is not producing enough for the home’s needs…