April 15 (Renewables Now) – Japan’s Panasonic (TYO:6752) this week said it is increasing its heat pump manufacturing capacity in the Czech Republic as demand for its air-to-water heat pump products, Aquarea, have been growing year-on-year.
The company started producing heat pumps at its Czech factory in Pilsen in 2018 and says it has since continuously been expanding capacity to respond to current demand and anticipated acceleration in Europe.
“Heat pump technology in Europe has been in demand over the past few years, however, now we are really seeing it accelerate,” said Enrique Vilamitjana, managing director of Panasonic HVAC Europe.
The company cited a report by the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA), according to which, European heat pump sales climbed 7.4% in 2020 to 1.62 million units.
Heat pumps are seen as one of the clean energy technologies, whose ramp up could help Europe wean away from Russian energy. In addition, EHPA estimates they could save 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year in the EU building and industrial sectors.
With a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) research and development (R&D) division in Germany, Panasonic can both design and produce heat pumps in Europe, it noted.
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