The numbers back up his statement.

Americans strongly favor expanding solar power to stem the rising costs of oil and gas energy, and environmental concerns, according to a 2016 Pew Research Center survey. Eighty-nine percent of Americans — with large majorities from across the political spectrum — favor more use of solar farms for their electrical power. Only 9% oppose it.

What's more, 40% of homeowners say they are considering installing solar panels, the Pew survey found. That percentage increases to 52 for homeowners in the west, 42% in the Midwest, 38% in the northeast and 33% in the south. The survey also found that 90% of Americans are looking to go solar to save on utility bills and 87% want to help the environment.

What also works in CECU's favor is that the cost of residential solar systems has declined 70% since 2010, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. And the cost continues to decline. According to the trade group's Solar Market Insight Report, solar installation costs dropped more than 6% during the second quarter of this year. The U.S. average cost for a solar system size of 5 kW (5000 watts) ranges from $10,045 to $13,475, according to EnergySage Marketplace, a solar energy research firm.

CECU's mission is to promote clean energy, environmental stewardship and cooperative enterprises through the financial services provided to its members. To achieve this mission, the credit union's objective is to accelerate consumers' adoption of clean energy products and services with loans not being offered by other financial institutions.

"First, CECU will focus exclusively on providing loans that help members afford to use clean energy products and services," Mickelsen aid. "Second, CECU won't have any brick-and-mortar branches and will instead operate solely via online and mobile banking applications. The reduced overhead will allow us to pass on the resulting savings to our members in the form of better interest rates and lower service fees."

Mickelsen, who joined CECU about a year ago, began her credit union career as a teller at New Mexico Educators Credit Union and worked her way up to executive positions such as COO for U.S. Eagle Federal Credit Union, vice president of internal operations at First Financial Credit Union and central operations manager for Sandia Area Federal Credit Union.

"She has a really strong operations background, which we feel really good about because we're not going to have branches, so we need to ensure that our internal operations run very smoothly to serve our members' needs," Blake said. "We're really glad to have her on board."

While working as a civil engineer for Halliburton, Blake saw firsthand the disadvantages and over-independence on fossil fuels. After a conversation with his brother, he began exploring the alternative energy industry and fell in love with it.

Following Halliburton, he landed a job as a service and engineering department manager for Lotus Energy in Nepal that specializes in solar photovoltaic energy systems.

He moved back to the states in 2004 and founded Namaste Solar, an employee-owned cooperative, and he later became a founding director for the Amicus Solar Cooperative. He also founded and currently manages the Kachuwa Impact Fund, which invests in private companies that leverage positive social and environmental strategies, which includes renewable energy, among other things.

At first, Blake and other organizers thought of opening a clean energy bank, but being a fan of the cooperative model, he pushed for a credit union charter, a process that he discovered to be both "incredibly exciting, enlightening and refreshing, but it was also head-scratchingly frustrating, painfully slow and inefficient."

"At the same time, we met some great people [at the NCUA] who really helped us out and gave us good suggestions," he said. "And there were plenty of other things where the delays were our fault in that it took us a long time to respond to questions that the NCUA had, so I don't want to put 100% of the responsibility on them." Though he understands why the federal agency has to ensure that it crosses all the T's and dots all the I's before granting a new charter, he believes the chartering process needs to become much more efficient.

While plodding through the NCUA charter process, organizers managed to raise $1.5 million in capital from foundations, organizations and individuals. Now that the charter has been secured, Blake believes it should help attract more contributions from avid supporters who want to financially support clean energy initiatives. Blake's goal is to raise an additional $3.5 million over the next two years.

"If we are successful at raising money earlier rather than later, that would allow us to add new resources, hire additional staff and move from our crawl phase to the walk phase more quickly than we otherwise could do," he said.

In the crawl phase, CECU will offer savings accounts, clean energy CDs, and loans for solar panels, electric or hybrid vehicles, and energy efficiency home improvements.

The credit union has found that current financing options are more expensive than they should be partly because clean energy markets are relatively new and unfamiliar to most traditional financial institutions. Another goal of CECU is to help other credit unions launch their own solar loan programs because there will be plenty of consumer demand across the nation.

"For solar loans, people are concerned about having a variable interest rate," Blake said. "They're concerned about having a lien on their home, like using a second mortgage. So the loans that work really well in the solar market, as an example, have amortization of 12 years, a fixed interest rate and are secured by the solar equipment."

CECU will offer a 12- to-18-month same as cash loans that covers the 30% solar income tax credit for new residential solar electric system and a 12-year fixed rate loan on the remaining 70% of the solar system's cost.

By offering up to 100% financing with no money down, the loans will enable members to swap their monthly electric bill for a monthly loan payment on a solar electric system with no prepayment penalties and automatic electronic payments.

CECU will serve the 4,300 members of the American Solar Energy Society who live across the nation. The members of the non-profit organization are renewable energy professionals, advocates and enthusiasts. ASES was founded in 1954 when Bell Labs discovered the photovoltaic effect of silicon, the highly efficient material that launched the solar industry.

Once the credit union's operations can support additional services, CECU also plans to offer share drafts, ATM access, IRAs and home equity loans for homes that are net-zero energy or Energy Star certified. This is the second "de novo" federal charter granted by the NCUA this year. In June, Community HOPE Federal Credit Union in Lincoln, Neb., received its charter and share insurance fund coverage.