Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Energy’s new Commercial Building Heat Pump Accelerator program aims to help manufacturers develop heat pumps that can replace less efficient rooftop heating and cooling systems. If deployed at scale, next-generation heat pump rooftop units could save U.S. businesses and commercial entities $5 billion on utility bills every year, the DOE said in an April 3 news release. 
• Despite the effectiveness of heat pumps in boosting energy efficiency and reining in emissions, deployment has been low, Maria Vargas, senior program advisor and director of the Better Buildings Initiative at DOE, said in an interview. “We’re going to be working closely with manufacturers to make sure that the products meet what the end users need and are looking for to empower their facilities…in a way that’s reliable and works in all climate zones,” she said.
• The accelerator, developed with manufacturing partners and commercial end-users as part of the DOE’s Better Buildings Initiative, aims to bring higher-efficiency rooftop heat pump technologies to market as soon as 2027, the department said last week. These units, it said, are expected to halve the greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs compared with natural gas-fueled heat pumps.

Dive Insight:

About $800 billion is spent annually to power U.S. buildings, plants and homes, with between 20% and 30% of energy wasted on average, the DOE said in its news release. Although heat pump rooftop units are estimated to cut GHG emissions and energy costs by up to 50%, compared with natural gas heating rooftop units, fewer than 15% of U.S. commercial buildings currently have heat pumps and their adoption is even lower in cold climates, where the performance and availability of commercial building equipment lags behind residential systems, according to a DOE fact sheet on the accelerator program. 

The Better Buildings Initiative seeks to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste, conserve water and assist with emissions reduction efforts in buildings and facilities. Organizations participating in Better Buildings include nearly 30 Fortune 100 companies as well as state and local government entities. Through this initiative, the DOE is partnering with leaders in the public and private sectors to “advance next-generation solutions, promote climate leadership and support workforce development,” it said in the news release. 

The Commercial Building Heat Pump Accelerator program, one of the newest Better Buildings initiatives, was developed with commercial partners including Amazon, Target, Budderfly, Columbia Association, Ikea, the Los Angeles Unified School District and Whole Foods. It builds on “more than a decade of public-private partnerships to get cutting edge clean technologies from lab to market, helping to slash harmful carbon emissions throughout our economy,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in the release.    

“Part of what the accelerator hopes to do is make compelling real world business cases to adopt these technologies,” Vargas told Facilities Dive, pointing to the need for these technologies to be reliable and inspire confidence. “We can generate case studies and real world examples of these technologies being used to take away some of the risks that people might perceive with this new technology, because there always has to be a vanguard. We’re going to need to build it, prove it and then get the word out. That’s the roadmap to moving these new technologies into the marketplace.”

In the commercial heat pump accelerator program fact sheet, the DOE says it will challenge manufacturers to develop new equipment that meets its “advanced technology specification.” In partnership with the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other laboratories, the DOE will also develop prototypes with manufacturers, test the performance and durability of the products and lead field validations with Better Buildings partners, according to the fact sheet. 

Manufacturers the accelerator has partnered with include AAON, Budderfly, Carrier Global Corp., Lennox International, Trane Technologies and York International Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Johnson Controls. 

“Support for innovative public-private partnerships like this one is critical to driving climate solutions domestically and across the world. By working together to build, test, and install next-generation commercial heat pumps at scale in the United States, we can accelerate a key, clean energy technology essential to reducing carbon emissions,” Kara Hurst, vice president of worldwide sustainability at Amazon, said in an email. 

The technology challenge is open to commercial heat pump manufacturers, the DOE said, and the campaign is open to building and plant owners and operators, utilities and other supporting organizations that could include nonprofits, associations and trade organizations.