Spreading heat pump benefit awareness seen necessary to help spur Chile adoption

Transitioning away from coal and other types of thermoelectric power generation, and boosting penetration of renewables, is a solid initial step in terms of country decarbonization.

The other chunky parts of the jigsaw puzzle – including energy efficiency, electrification and sustainable transport – are typically viewed as potentially trickier, given the target is not a handful of power plants but rather one that is atomized, comprising the likes of homes, factories and vehicles.

One powerful instrument in the energy transition toolbox is the heat pump, whose use can shrink electricity bills and carbon emissions of homes and businesses. 

Chile, aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, is among Latin American countries taking initial steps along the heat pump highway, having conducted pioneering market research with German international cooperation agency GIZ and started to deploy units.

Running costs are considerably lower than for traditional heating or cooling solutions, although some hurdles need clearing to help spur deployment, a local specialist told BNamericas. 

“The main barriers are the lack of knowledge about the technology and its benefits,” said Rodrigo Barraza, an academic and researcher at Chile’s solar energy research center SERC and at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez’s energy transition research center CENTRA and the faculty of engineering and science. 

“Also, in some cases, it could be that they have a high initial investment cost, but this is recovered through annual savings because of lower operating costs compared to their alternatives.”

In terms of propelling the segment, he added that both the public and private sectors had a role to play.

Simply put, heat pumps use electricity to transfer heat from a cool space to a warm space, and vice versa. An energy-efficient alternative to furnaces and traditional air conditioning units, heat pumps are being championed in the US and Europe as a tool to reduce carbon emissions produced by heating and cooling buildings.

Along with air-source heat pumps – the common variant – geothermal units have been deployed in Chile, including at a school, a fruit-packing plant and a home for vulnerable elderly people. 

With geothermal units, geothermal energy resources – the earth or groundwater – can be used with a heat pump to heat and cool homes, factories and greenhouses, among other applications.

An air-source heat pump transfers heat between a building and the outside air. Geothermal solutions, despite typically needing higher initial outlay, achieve greater efficiencies, and have potential to reduce energy usage by 70-80%, according to the US Department of Energy.

A government bill to spur development of low-enthalpy – or shallow-depth – geothermal energy systems has advanced in Chile’s congress and is currently in the senate. The key pillar of the bill, submitted in 2019, exempts such projects from having to obtain a concession under the existing system, which was designed for large-scale power plants. Establishment of a project registry, for existing and new projects, and monitoring and safety rules are also proposed, according to the original bill text. The framework targets projects that tap geothermal resources at depths of less than 400m and with an average temperature of under 90 degrees Celsius.

BNamericas will publish the full interview with Barraza in the coming days.

Founded in 2013 via a government science and technology program, SERC comprises a group of around 80 researchers from across six universities and the Chilean branch of German applied research institute Fraunhofer. Along with contributing to public policy discussion and carrying out education work, SERC members conduct solar-oriented research in areas that include water treatment, materials and industrial systems.