One Clear-Cut Fix Would Speed Up Europe’s Heat Pump Rollout
Subsidizing heat pump installations would cost less than EU countries’ annual spending on fossil fuel heating for homes, a new analysis suggests.
Engineers work on installing an Ecoforest heat pump at the Octopus Energy training and R&D centre in Slough, UK.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergMoving half of the funds spent on subsidies for fossil fuel heating to heat pumps could transition all European home heating to renewable methods by 2040, a new analysis suggests.
Heat pumps are cheaper to run than fossil fuel boilers in almost all EU countries, according to a report from the European Environmental Bureau, an international network of environmental organizations. But in many places, the upfront costs make them unaffordable for middle-income households. Gas, coal and oil heating, meanwhile, are still subsidized by many European countries.