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The Importance of Heat Pump Data for Policy Making and Innovation – Main Take Aways from IEA Workshop

Without correct data on heat pump deployment, policy makers are taking decisions about the technology in the dark. Therefore, it is of high relevance to harmonize how data is collected and published in different regions of the world and to complement existing information with additional parameters. This would help policy makers to assess if policies are working as anticipated, support investment decisions and drive innovation.  

Heat pumps are a key technology in the global transition to secure and sustainable heating. Tracking data on heat pump installations is essential in order to assess market development in different regions so as to provide reliable information to facilitate policy-making and research, and ultimately to support increased heat pump deployment around the world. 

On January 23 a workshop aboutThe importance of heat pump data for policy-making and innovation” was held at the IEA headquarters in Paris and online. Organized by the IEA secretariat in collaboration with the TCP Coordination Group on Heat Pumps, it assembled a broad array of stakeholders: from policy makers, statistics organizations, industry, business associations and consumer organizations, to technology collaboration programmes (TCP) and research institutes among others. The HPT TCP contributed to the arrangements with contacts, interventions and moderation of an interactive discussion session.
Workshop IEA Paris

In the opening of the event, a representative from IEA emphasised the importance of policy makers having the correct information about relevant technologies to design appropriate policies and follow their effectiveness. Although a lot of information is reality available in many parts of the world, the statistical methodology varies depending on the market. Here are some of the main takeaways from the inaugural session:  

  • The European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) publishes an annual heat pump market report covering 21 countries – 18 from EU and Norway, UK and Switzerland. However, 9 EU countries are still missing. Moreover, only numbers are published so far, even though they are aiming for reporting about installed capacity as well. 
  • Today China represents about 50% of the global heat pump market. Detailed data about this market is collected by the Chinese Heat Pump Association (CHPA) and published in a report every year.  
  • In Japan, on the other hand, different organisations collect and publish data about heat pumps – one for domestic hot water heat pumps, one for industrial heat pumps and another one for air-conditioners. 
  • In the United States, the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) publish data about heat pumps shipment every month. 

Existing gaps in heat pump statistics 

Data about number of sold heat pumps of different types (source, application etc) are available in many regions. However, data about installed capacity, efficiency, price, type of refrigerant, which type of equipment they replace, life length etc is more difficult to find even though it is wanted by many stakeholders. In addition, the number of installed heat pumps should be translated to the impact on the energy markets for electricity as well as for heating, impact on decarbonization and more. Moreover, a harmonization of the categorization of heat pumps (taxonomy) between different countries and regions would facilitate many transnational analyses. 

One such example is how air-to-air heat pumps are considered in the available statistics. In the United States all air-to-air heat pumps are included. In Europe they are included if they are assumed to be the only heating device in the building, while they are excluded in China and Japan if they can be used for cooling, even if they often are used for heating during the colder season as well. 

Workshop IEA Paris

Main conclusions 

The main conclusions from the representative from Heat Pump Centre, attending the workshop are as follows: 

  • Without correct data, policy makers are taking decisions in the dark. 
  • It is important to understand what the target product of policies in different regions is when elaborating a taxonomy for heat pump data. 
  • National associations are many times the weakest link and will affect the aggregated data. A harmonized taxonomy would help, but a compromise with a “perfect taxonomy” will most certainly be needed. 
  • There is probably more data available than we think but it needs to be aggregated, for example in countries with subsidy programs for heat pumps. Additionally, a lot of personal intelligence is needed to understand the data. 
  • Collected data by manufacturers, should also be of relevance to for the manufactures. This way they are more willing to share, and the result will be worth the efforts! 
  • In the future, we need to rely on connected heat pump, especially when it comes to statistics related to performance. However, reluctance among consumers to connect their heat pump to the cloud needs to be overcome. 
  • IEA could play an important role in developing and promoting a harmonized taxonomy for heat pump data and statists – this would be in the interest many of the stakeholders. Not only, this would help statistical organization and governments, but also consumer and investors. It would drive innovation and contribute to bringing down prices. 

 

For more information about the workshop please click here.