Game Tech: The Feds Just Bet Even Bigger on American-Made Heat Pumps
While everyone’s been focused on accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles to cut carbon emissions, a technological hero has been rapidly ascending under the radar: the heat pump. Instead of burning natural gas or coal to produce heat, this fully electric device extracts warmth from outdoor air—even when it’s freezing outside—and pumps it inside to warm a structure. After years of stealthy, steady growth, heat pumps are now outselling gas furnaces in the United States, whereas EVs accounted for just 8 percent of all US new vehicle sales in the first half of 2023.In November, the Biden administration announced it would be infusing the domestic heat pump industry with $169 million in federal funding, increasing capacity to manufacture the actual devices and their various components, lik...