INSULATION GOES IN: Deborah Harbin, a student of Moultrie Technical College’s Green Building Technology program, installs foam glass insulation at a home being built on Park Avenue in Tifton.

A “zero-energy” house being built in the historic district is giving Moultrie Technical students on-the-job training. The Tift County Foundation for Educational Excellence is funding the project and when the house is sold, the profit will benefit the foundation.

The house is part of the Green Tift initiative and students working to construct the house are students in MTC’s Green Building Technology program at the college. Students of the program take courses in energy efficiency, energy audits and renovation, and solar power installation and biofuels industry training. The students will be working in the fall with a project called “Future Farmstead” and the project will be the centerpiece and showcase for the Agricultural Energy Innovation Center at the University of Georgia’s NESPAL campus.

A $3.75 million two-year grant for the program was awarded to MTC last year. Mike Brumby of the TCFEE said Tony Grahame, a nationally recognized expert in green building, was recruited and now serves as the instructor in the Green Building Technology program at MTC.

Brumby said he met Grahame and the two began talking about a partnership with TCFEE to build the house and learned that Grahame has access to award-winning green architects who donate their services for non-profit organizations.

“We got the Downtown Development Authority to get involved as well as the Historic Preservation Commission,” Brumby said.

Brumby said the Downtown Development Authority made the lot where the house is being built at 403 Park Ave. available for the TCFEE for $10,000 and the foundation will pay the DDA back when the house is sold. The foundation underwrote the project and hopes to make a profit when the house is sold to use in community projects. Brumby said local businesses have donated building materials.

Brad Buchanan, a research professional at NESPAL, serves as a liaison between MTC and UGA’s Green Tift programs. At the building site earlier this week, he said that the house will be built “period correct” for the historic district but “super efficient.” He said the house will use solar power to supply electricity with the idea that the solar system will produce more electricity than the house’s occupants need. He said even though the house will be tied to the electric grid and be able to obtain electricity from the power company, 5 1/2 hours of bright sunlight should be sufficient.

“We should be able to produce more electricity than the house uses,” Buchanan said.

The house is expected to be complete late this summer.

Brumby said that with the building of this, “the first zero-energy private home,” the rural homestead at NESPAL and plans for the Georgia Peanut Commission to build green on Lake Drive at I-75 soon, the Green Tift Initiative is well on its way.

“This could stimulate all kinds of industry here,” Brumby said.