TECH Clean California Earns National Heat Pump Water Heater Transformation Award

November 7, 2024

TECH Clean California earned national recognition last month for its transformative impact on the residential heat pump water heater market, including its equity work in California communities. On Heat Pump Water Heater Day, October 23, the Advanced Water Heating Initiative (AWHI) honored TECH Clean California with a “Residential Heat Pump Market Transformer” award, using cartoon transformer robots to portray TECH Clean California and five other recipients as heroic characters making the world a better place. 

AWHI is a national, member-funded collaborative of building owners, utilities, federal agencies, state and local governments, manufacturers, engineers, installers, advocates, researchers, and building industry professionals from across the United States. This year, AWHI hosted Heat Pump Water Heater Day, and the organization presented a series of inaugural awards to recognize work that is successfully transforming the heat pump water heater marketplace, increasing adoption of the energy-efficient technology.

"There was stiff competition among many excellent submissions, but one program's achievements rose to the top."

The TECH Clean California program, a statewide initiative to accelerate the adoption of clean space and water heating technology, is leveraging market transformation to create an equitable pathway to two of California’s climate goals: Carbon-free homes by 2045 and six million heat pumps by 2030. Since its December 2021 launch, TECH Clean California has incentivized nearly 11,000 heat pump water heaters installed by more than 220 different contractors. With incentives, contractor training, workforce development, and other programs, the statewide program is overcoming barriers to the adoption of energy-efficient space and water heating, plus growing the market. The impact on climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions is significant already: Installing those 11,000 units saves an estimated 9,377 metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions per year.

TECH Clean California is working to ensure 40 percent of incentives go to equity communities, where barriers to adoption of energy-efficient technologies in single and multifamily homes can be significant.  Moreover, the program also supports pilots and competitive Quick Start Grants that test solutions to market barriers.

"A lot of the things they've done are highly scalable and translatable to the rest of the country."

Of six awards AWHI gave this year, TECH Clean California earned one directly and played a role in two others. Small Planet Supply and The Energy Coalition, lauded as AWHI Transformers for the commercial market and for equity program excellence, respectively, have both received Quick Start Grants for promoting the adoption of heat pump water heaters in low-income and traditionally underserved communities. An award recipient also called TECH Clean California "one of my mentors and educators."

The TECH Clean California initiative is funded by California ratepayers and taxpayers and administered by Southern California Edison Company under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission. The TECH Clean California team is led by Energy Solutions and partners with Anchor Blue Consulting, Ardenna Energy, Association of Energy Affordability, Building Decarbonization Coalition, Central Coast Energy Services, Inc., Electrify My Home, Frontier Energy, National Comfort Institute, Energy Outlet, Recurve Analytics, The Ortiz Group, Tre’ Laine Associates, and VEIC.