After relocating to Tucson from the Pacific Northwest, Lucas and Megan immediately knew that they wanted to take advantage of the sunshine offered by the Sonoran Desert:

“My whole career and life mission has been about minimizing the carbon footprint of the built environment,” says Lucas, “so it was a great honor to be able to afford a reasonably priced house in Tucson and be able to put solar on it. The main thing that inspired the decision to get solar came when we bought a Chevy Volt. I had this epiphany, ‘Oh wait, I’m charging this thing on coal. This is probably worse than gasoline!’ So, I crunched some back-of-the-napkin calculations and thought ‘Yep, we need to get solar right away.’

Lucas approached solar from a long background in sustainability. Becoming increasingly concerned about climate change while studying oceanography, he adjusted course to pursue a career in green, high-efficiency building materials.

“I was surprised by how inexpensive solar has become and how high tech the data monitoring has gotten. I've helped people achieve net-zero or better for almost two decades, but hadn't actually priced out solar in over a decade. When I saw the quote from TFS, I thought it was too good to be true.” 

TFS was able to help Lucas obtain the solar financing he wanted with a Clean Energy Credit Union (CECU) loan designed specifically for solar. As a financial institution focused solely on providing loans that help people afford clean energy products, the amazing terms of the CECU solar loan appealed to Lucas and his family.

“I've always been interested in how we can decrease our collective carbon impact with scalable solutions. Maximizing energy efficiency is typically the first step, but making solar a cash-flow positive investment for people is equally critical. It is about delivering a complete package that also maximizes comfort and health. We invested into energy-efficient appliances and LED lighting and now added solar to offset our gasoline and energy bills, and now - cashflow wise - we are actually saving money to have a zero carbon car and house. I forget what a gas station is even like, I haven’t been to one in 6 months!”