Citizens Utility Board and MREA outline solar group‑buy and heat‑pump pilots for King County
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Summary
The Citizens Utility Board presented Switch Together metrics and a heat‑pump group‑buy pilot for King County: program partners reported ~1,300 local registrations, 84 completed solar installs and plans for heat‑pump rollouts with signups and info sessions in 2026.
The Citizens Utility Board (CUB), with partners the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) and iChooser, briefed the King County Energy & Environmental Committee on the Switch Together Chicagoland group‑buy program and a proposed heat‑pump pilot.
"The number of program registrations is a little bit over 8,600," Grace Consueli, CUB solar outreach coordinator, said for the full program (2023–2025). She said Kane County results include about 1,300 registrations, 297 accepted and paid, and 84 completed installs, with seven batteries and four EV fast chargers installed locally. Grace described iChooser as the program administrator and MREA as the group‑buy manager responsible for installer vetting and marketing.
On heat pumps, staff described a pilot modeled on the solar group buy: free registration, a refundable $150 reservation fee when homeowners accept a recommended package, vetted installers and a timeline for signups and info sessions in spring and summer 2026. Fred (iChooser) said a Boulder County pilot produced installs from a portion of registrants and that a 22% paid acceptance rate in King County was within expectations for the program conversion funnel.
Members asked for yardsticks and cost benchmarks. Fred said a turnkey, cold‑climate heat‑pump project in the Boulder area was presented to participants at about $21,000 (including group discounts) and estimated equipment life at roughly 10–15 years; committee members and homeowners noted the cost varies widely by house and local incentives matter. A staff document referenced a $6,000 incentive for some installations; CUB staff agreed to follow up with clearer incentive details.
Committee members asked staff to return with additional data, local case studies and a data‑center expert presentation to examine whether local renewable deployment (solar and batteries) will be adequate for projected industrial demand.
