❗ Heat pumps are crucial for reducing carbon emissions and dependence on #fossilfuels, important for countries like Germany that still rely heavily on gas and oil in the heating sector.

🆘 As they increase the electric load, critics argue they could overburden the #powersector. Hence, we need to understand the interaction of heat pumps with the power sector.

Our principal insights are:

1️⃣ If equipped with a small heat thermal storage, heat pumps can store hot water for a few hours. By doing so, they can significantly reduce their peak demand and thus reduce the need for, e.g., batteries or gas-fired power plants.

And some further points:

* An ambitious heat pump rollout would be best matched with additional wind power, but solar PV also works if combined with other technologies.
* We calculate that small (<2 h) heat storage makes sense economically; larger ones are too expensive and anyway unrealistic for private households and will be rather used in heating grids.

And for the nerds, some details on the method 🤓

* We use a linear cost-minimization model of Germany and its neighboring countries with the sexy name #DIETER.
* Different heat pump rollout scenarios until 2030 are modeled (1.7, 3, 6, and 10 million units).
* #BEV and #hydrogen demand is also included.