ABSTRACT

Heat pump prices remained rather high although the large number of producers prevented the emergence of an oligopolistic market. Legal confusion, complex administrative regulations and subsidy programs, and an uncertain cost outlook seem to form important barriers to a more rapid adoption of heat pumps, especially by individual house-owners. Heat pump systems compete with many other heating systems. This differentiates their development process from the one of their technical twin, refrigeration systems. The chapter looks at governments, energy suppliers, producers, installers, consumers, and ecologists and their views of the situation, their problems, and plans. It shows that governmental institution-building is open to improvement in a number of areas. The consequence of the governmental support strategy could therefore be the generation of substantial initial technical and product breakthroughs relatively early on in the branch development process. Electricity and gas distribution companies play a decisive role in the further shaping and spreading of heat pump use.