Daikin, a global leader in Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) manufacturing, has announced five key commitments to significantly boost the supply of heat pumps in California. These commitments, which include producing one million heat pumps, aim to help the state achieve its goal of deploying six million heat pumps by 2030.
In October 2023, the California Energy Commission announced that ten of the world’s largest manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers of building heating and cooling equipment agreed to support California’s goal of deploying six million heat pumps by 2030. Daikin’s new announcement, a result of ongoing collaboration with the state, marks the first concrete steps toward meeting this pledge.
As one of the world’s largest economies, California’s actions carry significant influence that could inspire other states to similarly prioritize the deployment of heat pumps,” said Satoru Akama, CEO of Daikin Comfort Technologies North America, Inc. “This collaboration is a testament to our shared commitment to expanding access to energy-efficient heat pumps in California. We hope The California Heat Pump Partnership can serve as a future blueprint across the U.S., particularly the critical need for deploying inverter-based heat pumps, which provide energy savings, reliability, and affordability across communities.
CEC commends Daikin for its significant commitment of resources and expertise to help the Golden State meet our decarbonization goals, said California Energy Commission (CEC) Commissioner Andrew McAllister. Daikin’s tremendous brand awareness and global reach will accelerate market growth for efficient HVAC heat pumps, improve Californians’ homes, and expand our clean energy workforce.
Regulatory and marketplace barriers have so far hindered broader market and consumer adoption of heat pumps. As the HVAC industry develops innovative solutions to meet state and nationwide carbon emissions reduction goals, Daikin’s new commitments will help foster the right market conditions, industry training, and consumer awareness to spur widespread heat pump deployment. The company’s five commitments are:
- Maximizing local production capacity to produce one million heat pump solutions in California by 2030.
- Expanding its California workforce and partnerships to help achieve the state’s goals by:
- Establishing new distribution locations.
- Opening new branch training centers focused on heat pump installation training.
- Opening a sustainability and innovation center and other customer experience showrooms in major cities across California to demonstrate the benefits of inverter heat pumps and other decarbonization technologies.
- Partnering with California utility companies to accelerate the transition to inverter-based heat pumps, which includes:
- Collaborating with utility partners to increase education about the benefits of inverter technologies and their installation.
- Promoting the widespread use of inverter technologies through the creation of incentive programs.
- Developing products that help improve efficiency and reduce the cost of eventual panel upgrades when converting to heat pumps.
- Playing a leading role in the launch of the new California Heat Pump Partnership and supporting the development of a blueprint for installing six million heat pumps by 2030. This includes promoting inverter-based heat pump adoption through consumer marketing, workforce and community college training, supply chain integration, and government partnerships.
