Chinese Government Subsidizes Heat Pumps in Rural Areas

The General Office of Beijing New Rural Construction Leading Group has unveiled “Guidelines on advocating switching to clean energy from coal as well as coal reduction and replacement in villages of the rural area of Beijing 2016”. Based on available information, this coal to electricity transformation program is a very good opportunity for the penetration of air-source heat pumps.

A total of 674 000 households, i.e. 134 800 each year, are subject to this program according to the 13th Five-year Plan. The Beijing Fangshan District Government has released an action program along these lines which specifies a subsidy of RMB 24 000 (US$ 3 600) per household which converts from coal to electric heating with air-source heat pumps.

For the purposes of energy saving and reducing residential heating costs, direct heating types of electric heating equipment are prohibited by this program. Low-temperature air-source and ground-source heat pumps, and solar-aided energy systems that integrate multi-energy types and multi-heat sources are advocated. The use of heat pumps and multi-energy equipment should account for more than 80 % of the total heating equipment in a given area.

For the program, the Beijing Government has set strict bidding qualifications for air­source heat pump manufacturers.

The Guideline is the first specific directive from the Chinese government that covers the replacement of rural backyard coal consumption with low-temperature air-source products and technology which signifies the widespread adoption of air-source heat pumps in the domestic HVAC sector.

Source: JARN, July 25, 2016