Deep Pink State Catches Electrical Warmth Pump Fever, Bigly

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Electrical warmth pumps are chasing fossil fuels out of the heating and cooling enterprise, and they’re successful hearts and minds no matter partisan politics. The most recent instance comes from the gleefully crimson state of South Carolina, the place the Volkswagen-backed, retro-themed electrical automobile startup Scout Motors is busy putting in an industrial-scale warmth pump in its new manufacturing unit to the tune of the new new sluggish jam I’m Your Warmth Pump.

The Warmth Pump Revolution Hits South Carolina, Industrial-Scale Version

Coincidentally, I’m Your Warmth Pump additionally has a retro Nineteen Seventies vibe to it. Hat tip to South Carolina Public Radio for a function story on the 2 home-state musicians behind the sultry tune, which actually is all about warmth pumps. You may see (and listen to) for your self on YouTube.

In the meantime, Volkswagen has been evoking basic automobiles of the Sixties and ’70ths to be a magnet for potential electrical automobile consumers, globally and domestically. The corporate’s Polestar EV department, for instance, is credited with the bones of the brand new Ford electrical Capri in Europe.

Volkswagen’s new Scout Motors department is working the US angle. Volkswagen nailed rights to the Scout model when it acquired Navistar (previously Worldwide Harvester) in 2020. The unique model gas-powered model of the automobile was produced from from 1960 to 1980.

Within the newest information about Scout Motors, on July ninth, the worldwide agency MAN Vitality Options enthusiastically pronounced that it has been tapped to provide its industrial-scale warmth pump to Scout’s forthcoming manufacturing unit in South Carolina.

“This main enterprise is a part of a multi-billion funding by Volkswagen AG within the American firm, which is producing the following technology of absolutely electrical pickup vans and sport-utility automobiles (SUVs), echoing the long-lasting Scout automobiles constructed from the Sixties to 1980,” MAN enthused.

Industrial-Scale Warmth Pumps Are Coming For Your Fossil Fuels

CleanTecnnica has spilled loads of ink on the importance of warmth pumps for speedy decarbonization, focusing primarily in the marketplace for properties (right here and right here, for instance). An industrial-scale warmth pump is a special beast altogether. MAN will set up a factory-wide warmth pump system with two large compressors, every weighing in at 12.5 megawatts.

“With the manufacturing unit sprawling throughout roughly 1,100 acres, the manufacturing website faces substantial heating and cooling calls for,” MAN explains.

By way of the broader vitality transition, MAN notes that the warmth pumps will assist Volkswagen meet its 2040 carbon impartial objective. The President and CEO of Scout Motors, Scott Keogh, additionally emphasised broad sustainability targets in a press assertion asserting the brand new warmth pump system.

“As we construct our firm, manufacturing heart and finally our automobiles, we’re taking nice care to deal with our neighborhood, air, land, water and folks with respect,” Scott mentioned.

“We’re simply getting began,” he emphasised, indicating that the corporate has additional decarbonization plans within the works.

MAN can also be simply getting began. “This challenge may function a blueprint for future manufacturing amenities within the US and all around the world,” explains Uwe Lauber, CEO of MAN Vitality Options.

South Carolina To Electrification Motion: Maintain My Beer

Oh the irony, it burns. On the one hand, South Carolina is considered one of two dozen states working to guard fossil vitality pursuits by clamping down on companies that comply with ESG (surroundings, social, governance) investing ideas.

Alternatively, South Carolina is chest-deep within the decarbonization motion. That features saddling ratepayers with the notoriously delayed and over-budget enlargement of the Vogtle nuclear energy plant, in addition to pulling many taxpayer {dollars} collectively to incentivize clear tech producers like Scout Motors.

To quote only one instance, final yr South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster put his John Hancock on a brand new invoice setting the wheels in movement for an incentive package deal of $1.29 billion to land the brand new Scout EV manufacturing unit. That may be the identical Governor Henry McMaster who signed the anti-ESG invoice H3690 into regulation earlier this yr.

“The invoice [HB 3690] ensures all funding selections…are based mostly solely on maximizing the best charge of return for members and beneficiaries and never based mostly on elements just like the environmental, social, and company governance (ESG) motion,” the Governor’s workplace defined.

“This invoice is yet one more instance of our dedication to accountable monetary stewardship and it’ll safeguard the pursuits of our retirees and taxpayers from the liberal ESG agenda,” McMaster advised his social media followers.

Extra Warmth Pump Exercise Stirring The Decarbonization Pot

Apparently McMaster didn’t get his personal memo in regards to the liberal ESG agenda, or maybe state lawmakers anticipate to burn the candle at each ends. Whereas a brand new vitality invoice sailed by the legislature earlier this yr with a provision approving a brand new fuel energy plant, the state has additionally utilized for hundreds of thousands of federal dollars from the house vitality improve provisions of the 2022 Inflation Discount Act.

When you have any ideas about that, drop a observe within the remark thread. As of this writing, the South Carolina Vitality Workplace is advising shoppers that the state’s IRA-funded rebate program is not going to be up and working till subsequent yr. When it does, maintain on to your hats. South Carolina expects to obtain greater than $137 million from the pockets of federal taxpayers, with a portion particularly devoted to the Residence Electrification and Equipment Rebates program.

Their web site both wants an replace or a brand new state-based rebate program has emerged with the approval of the state legislature. Both method, house vitality companies corporations all around the state have already begun celebrating. “The South Carolina state authorities has introduced its new HVAC Rebate Program and Evans Heating & Cooling is completely satisfied to assist its clients and neighborhood benefit from this system,” one agency introduced in a press launch dated April 8, 2024.

Within the launch, Evans drew explicit consideration to the inclusion of electrical warmth pumps within the rebate program, and never only for house HVAC methods. Warmth pump garments dryers and water heaters are additionally included (see extra warmth pump background right here).

One other Group Warmth Pump Hug For US Taxpayers

If all this seems like excellent news for supporters of the brand new fuel energy plant, properly, perhaps. Possibly not. Whereas South Carolina lawmakers have been busy crafting laws in help of fossil vitality, the state’s personal Workplace of Resiliency (SCOR) has laid different plans. It utilized for, and obtained, a grant of greater than $124 million from the federally funded Photo voltaic For All neighborhood photo voltaic program, which is run by the US Environmental Safety Company.

“The first aims of this system embody increasing residential distributed photo voltaic and photo voltaic vitality packages, offering resilient energy options, diversifying the grid, and producing wealth and job alternatives inside native communities,” SCOR explains.

That’s excellent news for warmth pump followers looking for to shed fossil fuels from the grid combine, although the state has numerous catching as much as do by way of renewable vitality growth. The US Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation, for one, doesn’t seem significantly excited for photo voltaic progress within the South Carolina, however they do anticipate {that a} hair over 2.6 gigawatts will come on-line over the following 5 years.

Keep watch over the US Division of Vitality’s efforts decarbonize the commercial sector for a warmth pump makeover. Amongst current DOE grant awardees is the South Carolina agency Ice Air, which makes a speciality of water-sourced warmth pumps.

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Picture: In yet one more signal that the electrification pattern is widening and deepening, the brand new Scout Motors electrical automobile manufacturing unit in South Carolina will apply new warmth pump know-how to assist decarbonize its HVAC system (courtesy of US Division of Vitality).