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Climate

More Money, More Heat Pumps

On new DoE funding, methane leaks, and beef rice

More Money, More Heat Pumps
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: A storm lurking off the coast of Australia could soon become a tropical cyclone • Bangkok's 11 million workers have been told to stay home today to avoid harmful air pollution • Washington, D.C., could see up to four inches of snow this weekend or none at all.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Americans are buying 675 EVs a day with the help of the IRA

Car sellers sold more than 25,000 tax credit-eligible electric vehicles between January 1 and February 6, according to new Treasury data. That’s an average of more than 675 EVs sold at a government-sponsored discount per day, Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo calculated. To put that in perspective, about 1.08 million cars were sold in total in the month of January, according to Cox Automotive, or about 34,840 per day. So the tax credit-supported EVs were only about 2% of the total cars sold. But 25,000 discounted EVs is nothing to scoff at considering that fewer models are eligible now than last year. Also, the Treasury said it has paid approximately $135 million in advance payments to dealers for about 19,000 of the EVs sold this year. “So even with fewer options available, buyers are still taking advantage of the new instant rebate and finding vehicles that work for them,” Pontecorvo said.

2. DoE funnels more money into heat pump manufacturing

The Department of Energy (DoE) yesterday announced it was making an additional $63 million available to speed up the adoption of residential heat pumps across the country. This is on top of the $169 million in federal funding announced in November of last year. The goal is to boost manufacturing of heat pump systems, but with this new influx of cash, it seems the DoE also wants to wake Americans up to the benefits of using a heat pump to heat and cool water. Its announcement notes that heat pump water heaters can be up to three times more energy efficient than conventional water heaters. “Basically, the federal funding is aiming to nix the use of gas in a home wherever possible,” wrote Matt Simon at Wired. Ali Zaidi, assistant to the president and national climate adviser, told Simon that “we’re really seeing, I think, a sea change across the country in terms of how people heat and cool their homes.” Data shows that in 2023, heat pumps outsold furnaces for the second year in a row.

3. Google to help map methane leaks

Google is teaming up with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to help track methane emissions from space. The MethaneSAT – a satellite developed specifically to monitor methane emissions – will launch into orbit next month. Google will use artificial intelligence to create a map of oil and gas infrastructure locations across the world. “Once we have that map, then we can overlay methane data,” said Yael Maguire, head of Google’s Geo Sustainability team. This will offer a “far better understanding of the types of machinery that contributes most to methane leaks.”

Google/Earth Engine

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that’s far more warming than carbon dioxide. But it breaks down in the atmosphere more quickly that CO2, so slashing it is seen as “one of the cheapest, fastest ways to curb global warming in the short term,” explainedBloomberg. Fossil fuel operations tend to dramatically underreport their methane releases, so the hope is that more transparency about emissions will encourage reduction efforts from producers, but reductions “can increase costs in the short term and slow output,” Bloomberg noted.

4. India eyes IEA membership

India wants to take its relationship with one of the world’s leading energy authorities to the next level. The country has applied to become a full member of the International Energy Agency (IEA), joining 31 other member countries, and ministers are deciding whether or not to say yes. India is already an “association country,” but full membership would boost its role in tackling climate change. It could also help the IEA “strengthen cooperation in Asia to stabilize energy supplies,” as the region emerges as a key source of new global energy consumption, The Nikkeireported. The IEA noted that energy demand is expected to grow more in India than in any other country over the next 30 years. “The world cannot plan for its energy future without India at the table,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.

5. Researchers unveil lab-grown pink ‘beef rice’

The latest development in the enduring quest to create a meat substitute that people will actually eat is “beef rice.” Yes, you read that right. Researchers in South Korea have grown rice grains in a lab that contain cow muscle and fat cells. The beef rice is pink, firm, and high in protein and fat. Unlike some other meat alternatives, it uses ingredients that are widely available, affordable, and have a lower carbon footprint per gram of protein than beef, leading its creators to declare it “a novel food ingredient that can overcome humanity’s food crisis.” But the proof will be in the (rice) pudding: “A critical test is around public appetite for these sorts of lab-developed foods,” Neil Ward, an agri-food and climate specialist and professor at the University of East Anglia, told CNN.

Yonsei University

THE KICKER

America’s 16,000 golf courses soak up 1.5 billion gallons of water per day.

Editor's note: This article has been changed to correct the number of EVs Americans are buying each day.

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Economy

Trump Is Disabling the Agency That Could Fight China’s Rare Earths Embargo

The Loan Programs Office is good for more than just nuclear funding.

Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

That China has a whip hand over the rare earths mining and refining industry is one of the few things Washington can agree on.

That’s why Alex Jacquez, who worked on industrial policy for Joe Biden’s National Economic Council, found it “astounding”when he read in the Washington Post this week that the White House was trying to figure out on the fly what to do about China restricting exports of rare earth metals in response to President Trump’s massive tariffs on the country’s imports.

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Q&A

You, Too, Can Protect Solar Panels Against Hail

A conversation with VDE Americas CEO Brian Grenko.

This week's interview subject.
Heatmap Illustration

This week’s Q&A is about hail. Last week, we explained how and why hail storm damage in Texas may have helped galvanize opposition to renewable energy there. So I decided to reach out to Brian Grenko, CEO of renewables engineering advisory firm VDE Americas, to talk about how developers can make sure their projects are not only resistant to hail but also prevent that sort of pushback.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

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Hotspots

The Pro-Renewables Crowd Gets Riled Up

And more of the week’s big fights around renewable energy.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Long Island, New York – We saw the face of the resistance to the war on renewable energy in the Big Apple this week, as protestors rallied in support of offshore wind for a change.

  • Activists came together on Earth Day to protest the Trump administration’s decision to issue a stop work order on Equinor’s Empire Wind project. It’s the most notable rally for offshore wind I’ve seen since September, when wind advocates protested offshore opponents at the Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island.
  • Esther Rosario, executive director of Climate Jobs New York, told me the rally was intended to focus on the jobs that will be impacted by halting construction and that about a hundred people were at the rally – “a good half of them” union members or representing their unions.
  • “I think it’s important that the elected officials that are in both the area and at the federal level understand the humans behind what it means to issue a stop-work order,” she said.

2. Elsewhere on Long Island – The city of Glen Cove is on the verge of being the next New York City-area community with a battery storage ban, discussing this week whether to ban BESS for at least one year amid fire fears.

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