Thurston Climate Mitigation Collaborative staff reported measurable progress April 28 on Energize Thurston, a regional group‑purchase program that offers reduced pricing, rebates and a subsidized path for low‑ and moderate‑income (LMI) households to install heat pumps and heat‑pump water heaters.

"We launched the campaign in March," Rebecca Harvey, Thurston County staff, told the executive committee, outlining partnerships among the county, the cities of Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and Tenino, South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity and competitively selected installers. "The program offers a limited number of free or reduced‑cost installations for income‑qualified households through grant funds received by each of the partner jurisdictions."

Julia Downing, the program’s community energy fellow, gave attendance and application figures: "We’ve had about 586 total workshop registrations and about 430 attendees," including on‑demand viewers; the on‑demand workshop has recorded about 231 views. To date staff reported about 304 total applications (233 unique households): 257 applications from LMI participants and 47 from self‑funded participants. Of those applications, 214 were for space‑conditioning heat pumps and 90 for heat‑pump water heaters; staff reported 22 completed installations so far and said they expect installations to increase through May as site assessments and contracts are finalized.

The program is operated through an interlocal agreement that designates Thurston County as the lead for contracting, and installation work is being rotated among four competitively selected vendors. Downing described outreach that included in‑person workshops (three held so far), virtual sessions and targeted in‑community tabling; she said installers supported awareness through targeted mailers and social posts.

Staff emphasized that most jurisdictional grant funding has been expended. "Pretty much all of our grant funding has been spent," Harvey said, adding that Tumwater (referred to in the presentation as Tomwater) retained some funds and Olympia received an additional federal EECBG grant that permitted moving some applicants off a wait list.

Committee members asked about continued funding. Alyssa Woods noted that the recently passed state budget allocated $30 million for the HEAR program, down from $80 million this year, and staff said they are monitoring how to access available funds. Staff also said Habitat for Humanity and partners are pursuing other grant sources and encouraged LMI applicants to remain on the wait list while self‑funded applicants continue to apply through the end of May.

Program staff said the self‑funded pathway’s "up to $5,000" figure reflects a combination of a negotiated 10% group‑discount from installers, local utility rebates (example given: $1,500) and available federal tax credits (up to about $2,000 for eligible installations), plus smaller rebates—an illustrative calculation rather than an absolute cap. The presenters said they expect to finish the current round of installations by June and to evaluate next steps for continued or expanded programming.