Accelerate the promotion and application of heat pump technology and cultivate the green and low-carbon heat pump industry — "Action Plan for Promoting High-Quality Development Heat Pump Industry"

1. Under the leadership of the dual carbon strategy, China's heat pump industry is in a growth period. The heat pump is an efficient device for the production and conversion of heat. Using heat pumps instead of coal-fired or gas-fired boilers or electric furnaces for heating will significantly reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, improve the efficiency of energy use, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In recent years, with the acceleration of the global transformation process, the international community has paid more and more attention to heat pumps. The European Union regards heat pumps as one of the four key clean energy technologies to achieve carbon neutrality, along with photovoltaic, wind power, and electric vehicles. The United States also regards heat pumps as an important path for decarbonization in the building field The International Energy Agency released a research report "The Future of Heat Pumps", which proposed that promoting the application of low-carbon electricity-driven heat pumps will become the key countries to achieve safe and sustainable heating. Under the guidance of a series of policies such as clean heating and energy conservation and carbon reduction, China's heat pump industry has rapidly. In terms of market size, according to the preliminary statistics of industry associations, the total sales of China's four mainstream heat pump models, including air source, water source ground source, and absorption type, have maintained an average annual growth rate of more than 16% in the past decade, with a total production of about 3 million units 2024, accounting for more than 50% of the global market. In terms of technical level, Chinese heat pump manufacturing enterprises have continuously strengthened their innovation and&D efforts, and their technological capabilities have been continuously enhanced. Major breakthroughs have also been achieved in the field of high-temperature industrial heat pumps, where countries compete fierely. China has been the first to achieve stable supply of high-temperature steam below 200 degrees Celsius, and it has been successfully applied in brewing, pharmaceutical,, and metal processing industries. As a new green and low-carbon industry, China's heat pump industry still faces some challenges. For example, the social awareness is high enough, consumers are not familiar with the advantages of heat pumps; the initial installation cost is high, and the application scenarios are not extensive; key technologies such as high temperature, temperature difference, and wide temperature span of heat pumps still need to be broken through. The "Action Plan" seizes the "window of opportunity" for the development of the heat industry, further strengthens policy support for heat pumps, improves the quality of industrial development, builds competitive emerging industries, and provides strong support for promoting China's and global green and-carbon development. 2. Focusing on key fields and deeply tapping the potential of heat pump applications The potential for future heat pump applications is enormous. Although the building sector is the most important scenario for heat pump applications, accounting for more than 80% of the industry's output value, the current penetration rate of heat pumps in building heating sector is less than 5%, and the heat pump market size in the building hot water sector is less than one-fifth of that of gas water heaters In the industrial sector, nearly 50% of industrial energy is emitted in the form of waste heat, while industrial heat pumps are just starting, accounting for less than 1 of the total industrial heating scenarios, and there is great potential for future development. The "Action Plan" clearly points out the fields where heat pumps should be promoted and applied First, in the building sector, it clearly supports the use of heat pumps to replace coal-fired boilers and coal-fired heating, encourages the promotion and application of large- heat pump heating and heat pump water heaters, and further expands the application space for heat pumps.