TECH Clean California Helps GoGreen Home Energy Financing Go Statewide

July 21, 2025

Roslyn Roberts has always been serious about climate action. The associate professor at California State University, Sacramento serves on her county’s Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force. She meticulously tracks her household’s energy use and carbon footprint.

Still, replacing her own home’s aging HVAC system felt out of reach — the up-front costs would be more than $10,000, even after a TECH Clean California incentive.

And then, through her volunteer work with Sacramento County, Dr. Roberts discovered GoGreen Home, a state-backed private loan program for energy efficiency upgrades. The program sets aside public funds for a loan loss reserve to use in case of default. That mitigates risks and lets private lenders offer lower rates and longer repayment terms — a game changer for middle-income households.

“I eventually understood this was a public underwritten loan, that we’d get 4.49 percent for five years,” Dr. Roberts said. “I’m an accountant. I knew the gas and electric savings already. This financing sealed the deal for me.”

The GoGreen Home program, run by the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority (CAEATFA), was designed with customers like Dr. Roberts in mind, said Bill Heberger, program manager. “Wealthier people can just write a check. The very low-income community, they cannot take on debt,” and programs often make low-income participation no-cost, Heberger said. Middle-income earners like Dr. Roberts can fall into an opportunity gap that GoGreen addresses. “This is aimed at moderate-income households, where they can take on debt, but it’s cheaper than commercial rates of 12 to 15 percent, or even 20,” Heberger said.

When gas prices soared during the early days of the Russia–Ukraine war, it was the last straw for Dr. Roberts. “I’d had it with gas. The environmental issues, the cost, the repairs…,” she said. Her household was paying nearly $800 a year for a maintenance warranty on their HVAC systems, which dated to 1991 and needed constant work. In 2023, they hired an experienced contractor to remove the old AC and gas furnace and install an all-electric heat pump HVAC system. Her contractor got a TECH Clean California incentive via a rebate for the work, and she signed up for a five-year GoGreen Home loan to finance it.

Roberts’ upgrade is one of hundreds made possible by a two-year partnership between TECH Clean California and CAEATFA. That partnership, which ended in December when initial funding ran out, helped bring GoGreen Home statewide. Previously, there were complicated geographic and service-area-related restrictions on who could access the financing program and for what kinds of electrification projects. TECH Clean California stepped up with $1.8 million to fund a loan loss reserve for non-investor-owned utility customers, opening the door for nearly all California residents to participate.

“We had never been able to support things like heat pumps in Los Angeles or Sacramento,” Heberger said.

The simplified requirements made it easier for contractors to participate — which in turn made financing more accessible to customers. During the partnership with TECH Clean California, GoGreen Home-backed loans took off, with twice as many households securing them than in the previous year.

Financing is often critical for people interested in installing heat pump HVAC or water heating systems, enabling residents to pay for energy-efficient upgrades over years instead of all at once. At least one-quarter of single family homeowners financed their heat pump installation in recent years, according to a survey by TECH Clean California. But private financing can be out of reach for renters and low-to-moderate income residents; it may be too expensive, hard to secure, or simply inaccessible.

CAEAFTA has now established a long-term partnership with the California Energy Commission (CEC) to continue the work begun in partnership with TECH Clean California — a testament to the innovative financing program’s success.

“TECH [Clean California] funding of $1.8 million let us demonstrate the concept, and CEC’s continued funding will last us quite a while, probably at least seven years,” Heberger said.

Dr. Roberts’s heat pump HVAC contractor got an incentive via a rebate from TECH Clean California, and they tapped into a federal rebate program, as well. She calculated that during the first year of the new heat pump, she saved at least 550 kWh of electricity, more than 500 therms of natural gas, and close to $400 in utility payments. Considering her new loan and the fact that she no longer needed a home appliance warranty for the new system, she estimates she’ll break even just before her five-year-loan is paid off.

In the past, Dr. Roberts said, she hated hearing the old HVAC system switch on, as it reminded her of the excess electricity and gas she was using and the costs, including the cost of keeping the “old klunkers” running. The new system is substantially quieter, Dr. Roberts said, but she can still hear it click off. It’s less annoying though, because her electricity, from Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, is predominantly from renewable sources.