Jan RosenowNov 23, 2023

The Guardian asked me: “How did Norway become the world’s heat pump leader?”

My answer: “Norway ensured early on that fossil-fuel heating was the most expensive option, making heat pumps cost competitive.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/23/norway-heat-pumps-cold-heating

‘You can walk around in a T-shirt’: how Norway brought heat pumps in from the cold

Device installed in two-thirds of households of country whose experience suggests switching to greener heating can be done

The Guardian
Show threadSmokeyGeo

@janrosenow Jan, the lengthier quote “they did this by taxing fossil emissions” is significant. Absent the taxes, a heat pump costs quite a bit more than replacing a gas fired boiler or furnace with a heat pump (even an air conditioner replacement isn’t a drop-in due to different duct sizing required). That tax increase is politically deadly most places - that it isn’t in Norway is anomalous. Do you have insight on that?

Where I live, in Massachusetts, our energy regulator concluded that operating costs for a heat pump alone would be considerably more than fossil energy, limiting enthusiasm for switching. It should be added that fossil electric generation dominates in New England so unlike Norway where hydropower is near 100%, a heat pump doesn’t really save that much emissions

Nov 23, 2023 at 12:37pmWeb
Show threadrubbelNov 23, 2023
@smokeygeo @janrosenow
1/3 Gas fired was not really used much in domestic market appliances. Just for cabins and camping purposes. There have never been a distribution net for gas in Norway, at least not since the early 1900s. Most private homes are electrically heated. Larger buildings had furnaces, but when oil was no longer allowed you had to convert those boilers to bio-oil.
Show threadrubbelNov 23, 2023

@smokeygeo @janrosenow 2/3 The conversion wasn't attractive to many so they replaced the furnaces with heat pumps, electricity and geothermal energy. Some have added solar on top of that the last few years.

Hydropower used to be really cheap. It was ridiculous. But not so cheap anymore. Norway has gradually been connected to the Euro energymarket and it affects the prices significantly.

Show threadrubbelNov 23, 2023
@smokeygeo @janrosenow 3/3 The Russian invasion of Ukraine didn't help much. But it gave a nice opportunity to install green energy solutions like heat pumps, so sales went up. Scepticism was mostly gone by then. Heat pumps are old. Like the arguments sceptics make.
Show threadSmokeyGeoNov 23, 2023
@rubbel @janrosenow these are good observations - thanks. It sounds like the drivers in Norway are not too applicable to markets where fossil generation & heating widespread but could be helpful in France and Quebec where there's a ton of hydro & nuclear power, with a lot of resistive heating that could be upgraded