Apparently silicon on rooftops is just as hot as silicon found in all the computer components manufactured at the nation's ground zero for technology research and development.

San Jose, CA, considered the Capital of Silicon Valley, has had its real estate market ups and downs, but certified green homes with integrated solar roofs are selling like hotcakes.

When local new home builder Pinn Brothers recently released the first nine of 51 solar roof homes in the new Orchard Heights development in San Jose, seven of the $1 million homes were snatched up the same day.

Integrated solar roofs are standard on all the homes in the Orchard Heights subdivision as well as on 19 homes at another Pinn development, Falcon Place, also in San Jose.

Pinn worked with BP Solar and Old Country Roofing for the integrated solar roofing design and construction phase of the project.

The San Jose builder's new homes also all meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards for new homes developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.

In addition to solar roofs generating up to 60 percent of the households' energy needs, the homes include green designs and materials that make the structure more energy efficient. That's money in the pocket of owners who enjoy smaller utility bills.

They can also boast a smaller carbon footprint than their neighbors.

But in a housing market where sales are down to record lows and prices are flat as a silicon wafer how do you sell energy-efficient million dollar homes?

The energy-efficiency factor is a big draw, but the price point is what seals the deal.

The solar roof systems cost as much as $25,000 for each home, but Pinn didn't pass that cost onto buyers.

Instead, the builder cashed in on volume, incentives from the state's energy commission and incentives from the local power utility.

The result? LEED certified homes that sell for the same price as homes without the LEED certification.

That's some real mean green.

Published: March 17, 2008

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.