The Dow Chemical Company and Imagine Homes, a San Antonio-based homebuilder leading the nation in new high performance green building technology, unveiled the first solar standard community in San Antonio. This new community is leading the way in sustainable living by incorporating the award-winning DOW POWERHOUSE Solar Shingle - an integrated solar roofing system that protects the home and generates electricity - as a standard feature on all homes in their Willis Ranch subdivision. This latest offering of Dow’s Solar Shingles gives homebuyers in San Antonio the first community that combines Imagine Homes’ superior homebuilding design with the most cutting-edge renewable solution on the market.

“DOW POWERHOUSE was the ideal partner for us on the Willis Ranch community in San Antonio,” said Imagine Homes president John Friesenhahn. “They enable us to offer our customers a breakthrough roofing solution from one of the biggest names in home energy-efficiency. A roof that protects the home, uses sunlight to power it, and provides superior aesthetic appeal for our exterior design is exactly what this market is looking for. There is no other product on the market like it."

Homeowners that purchase a Willis Ranch home will get a complete POWERHOUSE roofing system that saves money on their annual energy bills, reducing the overall cost of home ownership and generating an unprecedented financial return on their home investment. The home also comes with a monitoring system that provides real-time readouts of electricity generation and home electricity usage. Homebuyers can also choose to upgrade the standard sized system to a bigger array that will offset even more of their energy bill. Expected savings range anywhere from $4,000-$10,000 in the first year, plus the POWERHOUSE Solar Shingles will increase the overall value of their home.

The combination of Imagine Homes with DOW POWERHOUSE Solar Shingles are helping to redefine green living in San Antonio, and are working to meet Mayor Castro’s, the city of San Antonio’s and Build San Antonio Green’s goals to increase solar and reduce energy consumption in the area.

“The grand opening of this new Willis Ranch community directly supports our mission to increase the number of green-built homes throughout our region,” said Anita Devora, executive director, Build San Antonio Green. “DOW POWERHOUSE Solar Shingles enable homeowners to have their roof work for them as a renewable energy source and we are proud to support the partnership between Imagine Homes’ and DOW POWERHOUSE in San Antonio. This is the future of new homebuilding in America.”

Earlier this year, DOW POWERHOUSE announced the collaboration with Imagine Homes to offer the DOW POWERHOUSE Solar Shingle roof system to all new homebuyers in Imagine Homes’ six San Antonio area residential communities.

“We are very excited to be expanding this collaboration and celebrating the first solar standard community in San Antonio with Imagine Homes,” said Dan Pezolt, Dow Solar marketing director. “It’s a perfect partnership, bringing together two companies that share a vision of smart homebuilding - which is ideal for the San Antonio market.”

Made in the USA and backed by a 20 year warranty from Dow, the POWERHOUSE Solar Shingle is certified as both a solar and roofing product. It has received seven performance and safety certifications, including the backing of Underwriters Laboratories (UL), International Code Council Evaluation Service (ICC-ES) certification and is proven to withstand rain, hail and wind uplift.

The DOW POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingle was recently honored as a recipient of a 2012 Breakthrough Award by POPULAR MECHANICS for creating the new benchmark in roof design and engineering in the U.S. They were also awarded Gold for Best New Product by the internationally-renowned 2012 Edison Awards™, and received the TIME Magazine Best Invention of the Year in 2009. www.dow.com