by Beatriz Santos*
In “Heating up the global heat pump market,” recently published in Nature Energy, researchers at the Regulatory Assistance Project – a global NGO with offices in China, Europe and the United States – proposed a number of policy recommendations to build confidence in heat pump technology and meet climate goals.
First, policymakers should ensure that there are clear financial incentives for building owners to invest in heat pumps. The researchers said that building owners should be given subsidies, grants, tax rebates or low interest loans to reduce the capex burden of heat pumps. They noted that such policies have already been implemented in many countries. They cited Sweden, Norway and Finland as examples in how to raise taxes on fossil fuel to reduce the operating costs of heat pumps.
Second, regulatory measures like introducing building, renovation, and appliance performance standards, as well as bans on fossil-fuel appliances, are recommended to scale up heat pump deployment. The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark are among the countries identified as already having variations of these measures in place.
(for the whole article, visit pv-magazine.com)
*Beatriz Santos joined pv magazine in 2020. She writes about new technology, R&D, installations, markets, and policy on the global website.
