Clay McCombe, Program Manager of Workforce and Industry for Power Ahead Colorado, is on a mission to make contractors voices heard. While working for the City and County of Denver as a Building Electrification Workforce Liaison, he consistently heard from contactors that they were excited to be part of the rising heat pump industry but were frustrated with the mystified landscape of rebates all while growing their businesses and skillsets. The Colorado Contractor Hub, a passion project that has come to fruition via McCombe’s and the Building Decarbonization Coalition, tackles these issues head on by being a centralized space for heat pump contractors to find training, new customers and rebates.
Power Ahead Colorado's own Maddy Nesbit spoke to Clay about the Colorado Contractor Hub and what this means for contractors in Colorado.
What originally inspired the creation of the Contractor Hub?
Over the years, I have received overwhelming feedback from contractors that they avoided rebate programs because the process was too arduous; there were a plethora of providers, each with their own system and all were customer facing, rather than with the contractors needs in mind.
I came across a program in Illinois called The Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA). Within CEJA, they had a clean energy contractor incubator, and I was really inspired by what they were doing. I wanted to provide a space that put the contractor first, a space where everything they needed to grow their business, acquire new skills, and navigate rebates was accessible.
Why should contractors apply for the hub?
There is so much opportunity in this space right now. This is the first program of its kind that truly prioritizes contractors. It’s also at no cost to contractors to register. The goal of the hub is to allow contractors, big and small, to extend their reach and grow their business while simultaneously providing a space for them to locate training. Once a contractor signs up, they receive a $1,500 training reimbursement. Along with these benefits, the hub provides customers with the opportunity to find the right contractor.
How do you define success for the Contractor Hub?
Everything circles back to the contractors. The intent of the Hub is to lift the burden off contractors and making a complex industry feel simple. A large part of that is increasing heat pump adoption in the Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) market. Currently, only about 20–25% of HVAC workers install heat pumps with the majority focusing on gas systems. Without rebates, many contractors will not touch heat pumps because the landscape is too complicated.
By simplifying and streamlining the process, we can get the majority of the market installing heat pumps. Through Power Ahead Colorado, we’re aiming to serve 1,000 contractors. Along with the Hub, we’re launching a business scaling program cohort in May of this year, we’re tracking leads, and we’ve already created two new roles where these individuals agents meet face to face with contractors to support them.
What are the future goals for the Colorado Contractor Hub?
The ultimate goal is to allow this service to span statewide. Alongside this, the AI assistant that BDC is developing has a lot of potential; we’re training it in building permitting codes, licensing processes and real contractor feedback. The Hub launched at the start of 2026 and we will continue to incorporate feedback from our contactors on what their needs are. Currently, the onboarding process takes roughly 10 minutes to register where the business will then populate onto the site. As more feedback is received, we’ll continue to incorporate more tools to best assist contractors.