Press release: With over 20 manufacturing sites and a huge potential up-take from its 38 million citizens, the Polish heat pump market should be booming.

Poland’s 745,000 heat pumps are helping people’s health – and the economy – by replacing fossil fuels and the pollutants caused by burning them. Nearly 35,000 deaths can be linked to air pollution in Poland each year, cutting the country’s GDP by 11%. Some of the dirtiest air in Europe can be found in Polish regions.

Heat pumps are also avoiding close to 1 billion cubic metres of gas and around 300,000 tonnes of CO2 per year in Poland.

Yet only around 5% of Polish homes have a heat pump, and heat pump sales are falling. In 2024, they dropped 35% on 2023 levels.

This decline can be put down to rising electricity costs, which more than doubled for many households in 2024 and a stop-start subsidy scheme, without proper checks and balances. This led to misuse, fraud and low-quality installations, undermining trust in the technology, disrupting consumer confidence and delaying uptake of the technology.

Yet in EHPA’s view, poor quality heat pump installations should be addressed by better governance of the scheme and training of installers rather than the restriction or pausing of Poland’s subsidy scheme.

“Installers are the gateway to a happy heat pump customer, so it’s crucial they demonstrate proficiency in design and installation before getting access to subsidies,” said Paul Kenny, Director General of EHPA. “Several European countries, like Ireland, Norway, Germany, France and the UK, have successfully focused on installer training and quality control to address concerns about installation quality. Many of these countries faced similar challenges in the past to Poland and now have the policies in place to overcome them”.

Decarbonising Poland’s cities will be the focus of EHPA’s Decarb Cities event in Krakow, Poland today and tomorrow. This event will bring together 40 speakers for five sessions and an interactive World Café, as well as a gala dinner, site visit of a ground-source heat pump and a city tour.

The event is co-organised by the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) and The Polish Organisation for Heat Pump Technology Development (PORT PC), with the support of the City of Krakow, the Polish EU Presidency, and hosted by the AGH University of Krakow.

Gold sponsors include Daikin Europe, Panasonic, and Turboden; Silver sponsors are Qvantum, Mitsubishi Electric, and Carel.

EHPA is a partner of the Clean Heat Europe campaign, which is focusing on accelerating the shift to clean heat, including for air quality reasons.