Building a competitive heat pump sector in Europe: industry insights and policy pathways
This paper presents the European Heat Pump Association’s (EHPA) strategy to accelerate heat-pump deployment across Europe while safeguarding industrial competitiveness. Building on EHPA’s competitiveness analysis and recent market evidence, the paper documents market trends, identifies key barriers to scaling (policy uncertainty, energy prices, financing gaps and installer capacity), and lays out a coordinated policy package of demand-creation, financing and regulatory measures intended to stabilise markets and mobilise manufacturing investment. The paper emphasises the need for EU-level coherence – to avoid fragmentation – coherent transition periods, and targeted financial instruments that convert announced capacity into operational plants. Interactions between heat-pump deployment and electricity systems are acknowledged as well in this paper, which will dedicate a chapter on the challenges and opportunities the impact of heat pump deployment will have on the electricity grid.