Ramping up the pace of home electrification

On the Catalyst with Shayle Kann podcast this week:

Heat pumps in 140 million U.S. homes by 2050 — that’s the goal laid out in Rewiring America’s recent report on the pace of home electrification. It’s a daunting target for a country that had heat pumps in only 17 million homes in 2020.

But we’re not that far off. According to Rewiring America, the U.S. is currently on track to install about 5 million heat pumps by 2025, only about 2.5 million short of the pace we need to reach 140 million homes by midcentury.

So what can we do to close the gap? What about other major categories of electric home appliances such as water heaters and induction stoves — are we on pace to reach net-zero targets there?

In this episode, Shayle talks to Stephen Pantano, head of market transformation at Rewiring America, about the organization’s Pace of Progress report. They cover topics including:

• The adoption targets for water heaters, induction stoves and other efficient home appliances.

• The roughly $9 billion in incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act that could accelerate adoption.

• The need for more data to get a better understanding of where and how to speed up adoption.

• Why heat pumps are a growing share of a shrinking heating and cooling market, and how that’s impacting slumping heat pump sales.

Recommended resources:

• Rewiring America: Pace of Progress

• Canary: New plan aims to quadruple heat-pump adoption in 25 states

• Canary: Heat pumps outperform boilers and furnaces — even in the cold

• Catalyst: How has U.S. industrial policy impacted climatetech investment?

Catalyst is a co-production of Latitude Media and Canary Media.

Catalyst is brought to you by BayWa r.e., a leading global renewable energy developer, service supplier and distributor. With over 22 gigawatts in its project pipeline, BayWa r.e. is rethinking energy every day and at every level. Committed to being a solid partner for the long run, BayWa r.e. wants to work with you to help shape the future of energy. Learn more at bay.wa-re.com.

Catalyst is brought to you by Sungrow. Now in more than 150 countries, Sungrow’s solutions include inverters for utility-scale, commercial and industrial solar, plus energy storage systems. Learn more at us.sungrowpower.com.