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The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has selected nine projects for funding support of $169 million to expand the manufacturing of electric heat pumps.
The proposed factories are spread across 15 sites in 13 states: Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.
“The selected projects are the first awards from DOE’s authorization, invoked by President (Joe) Biden using emergency authority on the basis of climate change, to utilize the Defense Production Act to increase domestic production of five key clean energy technologies, including electric heat pumps”, the DOE said in a recent press release. The four other technologies covered under the emergency spending authorization issued June 6, 2022 are solar parts, transformers and power grid components, insulation technologies, and electrolyzers, fuel cells and platinum metals.
“Heat pumps are critical to reducing the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels, bolstering national security, and boosting energy independence to strengthen national defense, lowering consumer energy costs, improving energy efficiency, and mitigating the climate crisis”, the department added.
The nine projects, which now proceed to “award negotiations” with the DOE, are for the production of air-to-air, air-to-water and geothermal heat pumps, as well as component compressors and refrigerants.
Mitsubishi Electric US Inc. has been provisionally allotted the biggest share of the funding with $50 million. That is for a Kentucky project to build a production facility for variable-capacity compressors for heat pumps that are suited for all climates. “Nearly all the variable capacity compressors currently used in all-climate heat pumps sold in the U.S. are manufactured in Asia”, said a DOE inventory of the selected projects.
York International Corp. has been earmarked $33.07 million for three projects in Pennsylvania and Texas. York International’s grant request, according to the inventory on the DOE website, is for “bringing a full and inclusive suite of heat pumps to market, making it possible for us to accelerate the pace of retrofitting three of our U.S. manufacturing sites to produce and substantially increase the number and breadth of electric heat pumps necessary to transform the market, deliver significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions for the built environment, and establish the U.S. as the global leader in heat pump manufacturing”.
Ice Air LLC has been provisionally awarded the third-biggest amount at $17.61 million for a manufacturing facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina that would expand the capacity of its portfolio of cold climate air-to-air and air-to-water heat pumps and geothermal water-to-air heat pumps.
“Heating and cooling buildings, homes, offices, schools, hospitals, military bases, and other critical facilities drive more than 35 percent of all U.S. energy consumption”, the DOE announcement noted. Using heat pumps avoids up to 50 percent of emissions released from gas boilers, according to the DOE.
“Covered under President Biden’s Justice40 initiative and funded by the Inflation Reduction Act—the largest climate investment in history—selected projects will help build a clean energy economy, create good-paying manufacturing jobs, improve air quality, help families and businesses save money on their energy bills, and bolster national security by reducing energy resilience on foreign adversaries”, the DOE added. It estimated over 1,700 jobs in “disadvantaged communities” from the projects.
Justice40, which Biden passed January 27, 2021, targets to direct 40 percent of the benefits of certain investments, including those poured into clean energy and housing, to disadvantaged communities.
In early 2024 the DOE plans to hold the second round of the emergency spending for clean energy under the Defense Production Act.
“The President is using his wartime emergency powers under the Defense Production Act to turbocharge U.S. manufacturing of clean technologies and strengthen our energy security”, Ali Zaidi, adviser to Biden on climate, said in a statement.
Biden last year invoked the emergency powers of the Defense Production Act to help the US achieve self-reliance for clean energy materials.
The DOE has offered assistance in the forms of grants and tax incentives for projects boosting the local production of batteries, energy storage systems, critical minerals and wind and solar parts.
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
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