U.S. spending $169M to ramp up domestic heat pump manufacturing

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) will lead the heat pump funding initiative.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced funding of $169 million available for nine projects to accelerate domestic heat pump manufacturing at 15 sites across the country.

The nine manufacturing projects selected will enter into award negotiations. Before funding is issued, DOE and the applicants will undergo a negotiation process, and DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.

The nine projects selected include:

• Armstrong International, Inc – Three Rivers, Michigan – ($5M) the addition of 29,000 sq. ft. to an existing facility for production of industrial heat pumps.
• Bard Manufacturing Co. – Madison, Georgia – ($9M) expand facility to produce wall mounted single package vertical unit (SPVU) air conditioning and heat pumps.
• Copeland LP – Sidney, Ohio; Ava, Missouri; Lebanon, Missouri; and Cudahy, Wisconsin – ($11.5M) expand existing and build new facilities and machining capabilities for production of residential, commercial, and industrial heat pump compressors and systems.
• Honeywell International – Geismar, Louisiana – ($14.8M) increase the production capacity of its HFO-1234yf product, a low global warming potential (GWP) component used to produce R-454B.
• Hydro Temp Corp. – Pocahontas, Arkansas; and Albany, New York – ($10.8M) proposes a major expansion of facilities and tooling to increase manufacturing capacity 10-fold, from 250 units/yr. to over 2,500 units/yr. by 2025.
• Ice Air, LLC – Spartanburg, South Carolina – ($17.6M) establish a new commercial-scale manufacturing facility to develop and advance domestic heat pump production capability as substantially all equipment is currently produced in Asia.
• Mitsubishi Electric U.S. Inc – Kentucky – ($50M) establish a factory to domestically manufacture variable capacity compressors for all-climate heat pumps.
• Gradient Comfort – Michigan – ($17.5M) establish a high-volume, vertically integrated manufacturing facility to produce an inverted-U configuration window unit heat pump with a production capacity of 100,000 units per year.
• York International (Johnson Controls) – Wichita, Kansas; Waynesboro, Pennsylvania; and San Antonio, Texas – ($33M) accelerate the pace of retrofitting three manufacturing sites to increase the number and breadth of residential and commercial heat pumps.

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