SCARBOROUGH, Maine — After surpassing Maine's previous goals, state leaders are heading to the drawing board to allocate new federal funds in the form of heat pump rebates in 2024.
Thanks to $71.6 million dollars in federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act, the governor's energy office will sit down with folks at Efficiency Maine to allocate the funds, per the guidance of the U.S. Department of Energy.
MaineHousing will also work closely on the plan and has been working to help decrease barriers for low income residents looking to install a heat pump.
"Overall I think we're doing very well and it's a matter of... continuing to find funding sources to keep the ball rolling," MaineHousing Director Dan Brennan said. "We've got a great network of installers, and the industry has really picked up there."
The new plan comes after Maine surpassed its goal of 100,000 heat pumps by 2025—two years ahead of schedule. As a result, Governor Janet Mills announced a new goal of 175,000 heat pumps by 2027 earlier this year.
Leaders at Competitive Energy Services say for commercial buyers, incentives alongside better tech has been a driving factor for installations.
"[It's] much more flexible how you can use it, to heat and cool a non-residential building. So I think that has been the bigger change that we've seen," Chief Strategy Officer Eben Perkins said.
However, business owner Shawn LaPlante of LaPlante Electric says he has seen a quick jump slow down into a steady stream of installations.
"A lot of people were doing them initially, and I think now they've taken a step back and saying do I really want to heat my house with heat pumps completely," LaPlante said.
Since its initial push, Efficiency Maine's eligibility terms have changed. Now, folks need to use heat pumps as 80 percent of a resident's heating source in order to tap into the most of its rebates.
"I think when all of a sudden we made a hard line in the sand, that it's we want to use only these, that's when people said well I don't know if we want quite want to do that yet," LaPlante added.