The boat industry in Somerset, a city in Pulaski County, Kentucky, is suffering because of the economic decline in the country, but a company known to build houseboats plans to build green modular homes, an effort to help the struggling industry. The green modular homes will be a prototype of the houseboats, but it will be for land, not for water.

In Seattle, a real estate developer, Greenfab, built sustainable modern and modular home, a demo prefab home, with energy efficient features. The prefab home will be the company's first attempt to build a LEED certified modular home, Seattle's first certification for an LEED Platinum, if approve by the U.S Green Building Council.

The houseboats builder, Stardust Cruisers, plans to build energy efficient green modular homes on the same factory, where the company normally builds luxurious houseboats.

The goal for the company's efforts, according to a report, is to boost the employment rate at Lake Cumberland-area - a reservoir in Clinton, Laurel, McCreary, Pulaski, Russell, and Wayne counties in Kentucky.

Stardust Cruisers plans to build a model for green modular homes that features energy-efficiency and affordability, while creating jobs for material suppliers and factories in the area.

The houseboat factory Wayne County will be participating in the development and construction of the fist two prototypes of the green modular homes. The company targets the markets in Hurricane Katrina-destroyed-homes area, to replace the victim's destroyed residential properties, or, it can be used as military housing.

Green modular homes prototype set up in Monticello and Whitley County received a $125,000 federal grant from Kentucky Highlands Investment Corp. The Appalachian Regional Commission also grants about $1 million for the project in 2010.

Read more at http://pptymag.com/prototype-of-green-modular-homes-cost-1-62day-for-heating-and-cooling/2808/