As of: February 28, 2024, 6:06 a.m
By: Amy Walker
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The heat pump industry is facing challenges.
Confusing politics and falling energy prices are slowing the boom.
Berlin – The boom in the heat pump world has been dealt a major blow.
This emerges from the latest figures from the European heat pump association EHPA, which were presented on Tuesday (February 27th).
Last year, sales of heat pumps fell by five percent in 14 European countries, after the association recorded growth of 37.6 percent between 2021 and 2022.
Energy prices and confusing politics are causing trouble
According to the association, the 14 countries whose sales figures were presented at the EHPA press conference represent 90 percent of the European heat pump market.
Reliable trends can therefore be derived from these numbers.
According to the association, the decline in sales figures has various causes.
On the one hand, there has been uncertainty in various countries due to new funding plans, for example in Germany in the discussion about the heating law.
On the other hand, energy prices have changed: After an explosive increase in 2022, the price of gas has fallen steadily over the past year and is now significantly lower than the price of electricity.
The association criticizes this and calls for measures to reduce the price of electricity in the long term.
In addition, a new EU ban on heat pumps with so-called F-gases has led to setbacks in the industry.
“If Europe is serious about supporting net-zero industries, decarbonization and achieving greater energy independence, it cannot afford to delay.
A proper action plan shows voters that EU politicians support them.
The longer we wait, the more challenging the decarbonization of heating and cooling systems will be,” said Thomas Nowak, chairman of the association.
Right-wing parties are raising the mood against heat pumps
What is particularly worrying for the heat pump association is the fact that political actors on the right-wing fringe in particular have discovered the heat pump as an election campaign issue.
This is particularly clear in Germany, where the AfD describes the heat pump as a “cost trap” and promotes sentiment against the technology.
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Falling sales figures and consumer uncertainty fueled by right-wing slogans are already having a real impact on heat pump manufacturers.
According to EHPA, 3,000 jobs across Europe have already been affected, which have either been cut or put on short-time work because the market has not developed as expected at the end of 2022.
The Chinese company Midea has been producing heat pumps for a long time - also in Europe.
© STR/AFP
Companies such as Daikin, Vaillant, Saunier Duval and Stiebel Eltron have already put their employees on short-time work, while Swedish manufacturer Nibe plans to cut 500 jobs.
The French company Groupe Atlantic has reduced work at one of its factories to just two days a week.
The Irish company GlenDimplex, which produces heat pumps in France and Germany, has also postponed investments in new capacities.
Despite these challenges, the EU Commission has set the goal of installing around 60 million heat pumps in the EU by 2030 in order to achieve the climate goals in Europe.
This would correspond to an average sales increase of 17 percent per year.
However, it remains questionable whether this goal can still be achieved given current developments.
The editor wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at her own discretion. All information has been carefully checked. Find out more about our AI principles here.