Journal article
Can heat-pumps provide routes to decarbonization of building thermal control in the US Midwest?
Energy science & engineering, Vol.10(8), pp.2612-2621
08/2022
DOI: 10.1002/ese3.1159
Abstract
Climate change mitigation demands rapid decarbonization; in cold regions such as the US Midwest, building thermal control (BTC) presents a potential for significant cuts in emissions by combining renewable energy with heat pumps. Trends in natural gas and electricity pricing over the period 2007-2020 have significantly upended economic feasibility of this decarbonization approach. Heat pump-based BTC has moved from being cost advantageous in operations but higher GHG emitting (in 2007), to the exact opposite-higher cost but lower emitting (in 2020). Due to energy price fluctuations, the coefficient of performance required of a heat pump to breakeven on operational cost with high efficiency natural gas heating has doubled, changing from 2.25 to 4.5 over the period 2007-2019. The value of 4.5 is infeasible for all available cold-climate heat pump systems. Thus, while electrification via both air-source and ground-source heat pumps is a commonly identified component of decarbonization plans in the region, actual implementation has declined. Improvements in heat pump performance, overcoming adoption barriers, and adopting policies that buffer long-term climate solutions against short-term price fluctuations are all needed. In part due to continuing decreases in carbon intensity of electricity, heat pump climate benefits can be substantial over project life cycles; however, there is no current policy mechanism to enable this benefit to be considered relative to short-run economic considerations.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Can heat-pumps provide routes to decarbonization of building thermal control in the US Midwest?
- Creators
- Austin Doak - University of IowaCharles Stanier - University of IowaJerry Anthony - University of IowaH. S Udaykumar - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Energy science & engineering, Vol.10(8), pp.2612-2621
- DOI
- 10.1002/ese3.1159
- eISSN
- 2050-0505
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 10
- Grant note
- Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, University of Iowa
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 04/19/2022
- Date published
- 08/2022
- Academic Unit
- Center for Social Science Innovation; Injury Prevention Research Center; Public Policy Center (Archive); Chemical and Biochemical Engineering; School of Planning and Public Affairs; Mechanical Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984253260202771
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