While solar panels and wind turbines get all the attention, an underappreciated device is helping to significantly reduce carbon emissions. That is a heat pump. Rather than burning natural gas to generate heat like a furnace would, an electric heat pump extracts heat from the outdoor air and transfers it indoors. In the summer, the device reverses and cools the building by extracting indoor heat.
Sales of heat pumps are It’s booming all over the world; In the United States, approximately 4 million units will be installed in 2021, up from 1.7 million units in 2012. The U.S. Department of Energy today announced $169 million in federal funding for domestic heat pump manufacturing, and it hopes to do more with that number. Funded by the Inflation Control Act (a massive climate bill passed last year that also provides tax credits for heat pumps), the award will go to nine projects in 13 states and create 1,700 jobs.
“Bringing more American-made electric heat pumps to market will help families and businesses save money through efficient heating and cooling technology,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a Department of Energy statement provided to WIRED. It will be helpful.” “These investments will create thousands of high-quality, high-paying manufacturing jobs and strengthen America’s energy supply chain.”
The Biden administration is taking the following steps: defense production act, a provision that allows the president to promote the production of supplies necessary for national defense. In this case, the administration is “exercising emergency powers based on climate change,” according to a press release. The Biden administration previously used the DPA to integrated circuit and COVID vaccine. Before that, the Trump administration activated the program to increase production of personal protective equipment at the beginning of the pandemic.
“The president is using the wartime emergency powers under the Defense Production Act to accelerate U.S. heat pump production for a variety of reasons,” said Ali Zaidi, the president’s chief of staff and national climate adviser. The first is to improve energy security by reducing dependence on international supply chains for things like components, he said. Also, because heat pumps are electric, they are not affected by fossil fuel price fluctuations. “This is an opportunity to make our families more resilient in the face of global energy instability,” Zaidi added. “The way to solve this problem is to bring the supply chain of technologies like heat pumps into the country.”
The nine projects across 15 DOE locations cover domestic production of both pumps and their individual components.So in Three Rivers, Michigan, Armstrong International is expanding its manufacturing capacity for industrial heat pumps, and in Detroit, Treu (also known as Gradient) is expanding its manufacturing capacity for industrial heat pumps. small unit for home use. Funds will also be used to produce compressors and refrigerants used in the equipment in states such as Missouri, Louisiana and Ohio.
