Heat pumps: the government will reserve certain subsidies for models manufactured in Europe

From September, the aid allocated by the energy savings certificate (CEE) mechanism will be redirected towards "heat pumps which are produced in Europe, efficient and of good quality", the ministry explained to the press.

Created in 2005, the Energy Savings Certificates (CEE) scheme requires energy suppliers to finance operations or works aimed at reducing energy consumption and/or improving energy performance. These subsidies now make it possible to finance energy renovation projects, the purchase of an electric vehicle, or the installation of a heat pump to replace an oil or gas boiler, which uses energy that is almost exclusively imported.

Although less polluting, this equipment is expensive: around 15.000 euros.

For the purchase of an approved heat pump model (air/water, water/water, or ground/water), households will be entitled to an average subsidy of €3.500 – the same amount as today. However, for non-approved models, the subsidy will only be €700.

According to the ministry, the European preference criterion requires that the heat pump have its refrigeration circuit (the central part) assembled in the European economic area.

"The idea here is to replicate for heat pumps what has been done for electric vehicles," through the ecological bonus, conditional on a European manufacturing criterion, explains the ministry.

With this measure, which aims to reconcile "ecological transition and industrial development," the government intends to revive the French heat pump sector, which has seen its sales decline. Groupe Atlantic, the leading French heat pump manufacturer, is, for example, in the process of being acquired by the Japanese-American group Paloma Rheem.

According to Ademe, the heat pump sector employs nearly 66.000 full-time equivalents (2023 figures). The majority of jobs are in installation and distribution (80%), the rest in manufacturing (7.600 FTEs) and maintenance (5.700 FTEs).

Heat pump manufacturers have until the end of February to submit their applications for approval via an online platform. The list of approved heat pumps will be published in July.

According to the ministry, France has an existing production capacity of 300.000 units, which could be increased to 500.000.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.