“California knows how to scale clean energy. We’ve done this with electric vehicles, solar, wind, and battery storage — and now it’s time to take the benefits of heat-pump technology mainstream,” said California Energy Commission chairman David Hochschild in a press release. “Heat pumps provide Californians a way to both cool and heat their homes with no pollution. The California Heat Pump Partnership will help government and industry leaders do the barrier-busting necessary to ensure heat pumps are accessible to all Californians."

“The Building Decarbonization Coalition is uniquely positioned to manage the partnership, and bring together state and industry leaders to rapidly grow the heat pump market in California,” said Terra Weeks, the CAHPP director. “Scaling this technology will usher California into a new era of clean electric heating and cooling, and propel the state toward a carbon-neutral future.”

The CAHPP will develop a blueprint outlining how to address technical, market, and policy barriers to achieving the state’s heat pump goals. The partnership will also deploy a statewide consumer marketing campaign through The Switch Is On, an initiative launched by the Building Decarbonization Coalition, to educate, inspire, and make switching to electric appliances easier.

California currently has about 1.5 million heat pumps deployed and is on pace to install fewer than 200,000 heat pumps a year. To close the gap of 4.5 million heat pumps by 2030, heat pump adoption will need to nearly quadruple to about 750,000 units annually. Large-scale coordination efforts are crucial to align major players in the clean-energy transition and support California’s climate goals, the press release said.

“As a global leader in intelligent climate and energy solutions, Carrier is committed to supporting the installation of six million heat pumps in California’s buildings by 2030,” said Kyle Gilley, vice president of government relations at Carrier. “Electrification continues to be a solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and we are proud to be contributing to a greener tomorrow with our high quality, energy efficient, sustainable heat pump systems.”

The California Heat Pump Partnershp includes:

• Representatives of heat pump manufacturers, including A. O. Smith, Bradford White, Carrier, Daikin, Fujitsu General America Inc., Johnson Controls, Lennox, LG, Mitsubishi Electric, Rheem, and Trane Technologies.

• HVACR distributor Ferguson Enterprises. 

• Representatives of electricity providers, including Pacific Gas and Electric, Edison International, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and Ava Community Energy.

• Policymakers representing the California Energy Commission, the California Air Resources Board, the California Public Utilities Commission, and the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

• The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator.