Maine
Maine’s energy efficiency agency is bullish on electric heat pump installation
Workers from Horizon Homes install heat pumps at Homestead Village in Westbrook on Aug. 8. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer
FREEPORT — Maine’s quasi-state agency that promotes energy efficiency says the state is on track to reach its goals in electrifying buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But a business owner at Efficiency Maine Trust’s annual event Thursday questioned a shift in a rebate program to incentivize electric pumps that heat an entire house, rather than a few rooms.
“We’ve been on a pretty good streak lately,” Executive Director Michael Stoddard told heating and cooling business owners and employees.
Heat pumps are “becoming a bigger and bigger part of the programs that we are operating at Efficiency Maine and a bigger and bigger part of what policymakers want to prioritize,” he said.
In July 2023, Maine surpassed its goal of installing 100,000 new heat pumps two years early. Gov. Janet Mills set a new target of installing another 175,000 heat pumps in Maine by 2027. Maine will receive between $45 million and $72 million from Washington to install heat pumps for home heating and cooling and hot water heaters.
Residential electric heat pumps benefit from Efficiency Maine rebates up to $8,000, depending on income, and federal tax credits of up to $2,600.
The Maine Climate Council has set a goal of 487,000 homes – 90% of single-family homes in Maine – that will meet their entire heating load with electric heat pumps in retrofits and new construction. “We are on that trajectory and the policymakers have told us we want you to keep going until you get this done,” Stoddard said.
The state’s Climate Action Plan has established an interim target of 115,000 homes entirely heated by heat pumps by 2030; about 20,000 homes are currently heated entirely with electric pumps.
Michele Putko, chief executive officer and founder of Clean Flame Thermal Solutions, a Cape Neddick business that combines heat pump technology with a fireplace, asked Efficiency Maine officials if whole-home heat pumps would be a harder sell. She cited higher costs and electricity outages that would entirely darken houses that depend on whole-home heat pumps.
“Many of us have concerns about power outages, the expense, all-or-nothing,” she said.
Stoddard said momentum for whole-home heat pumps, indicated by rebates, is not slowing but will require more marketing and education.
“It was a significant shift. It took a little while for people to get comfortable with it,” Stoddard said.
Efficiency Maine’s shift is at least partly intended to make electricity the primary home heat source and discourage a secondary use of oil or gas.
Many Maine municipalities will open cooling centers this week with the National Weather Service issuing a variety of heat advisories covering the next few days.
The Maine DEP also issued an air quality alert for Wednesday with ground-level ozone expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
All of York County, interior Cumberland and Androscoggin counties, and the southern half of Oxford County will fall under an extreme heat warning from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Friday.
The warning calls for “dangerously hot conditions” that could feature heat index values of up to 110 degrees, with overnight lows only expected to fall into the 70s, according to the weather service’s office in Gray.
The rest of the state — save northern Aroostook, Piscataquis and Somerset counties — falls under a heat advisory from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday. However, the weather service has also placed much of the state under an extreme heat watch for Thursday.
Heat index values, which measure how hot it feels to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature, are expected to reach up to 104 degrees during the heat advisory period, the weather service warns. They could reach 110 degrees Thursday, when the extreme heat watch is in effect.
Northern Oxford and Franklin counties, and central Somerset County, can expect a heat index value of up to 99 degrees Wednesday, according to the weather service.
The weather service advises people to drink plenty of fluids, stay in air-conditioned rooms when possible, avoid extended periods in the sun and check up on relatives and neighbors. It also warns not to leave young children and pets in unattended vehicles, as “car interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.”
Cooling Centers
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has also issued an air quality alert from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday along the coast from Kittery to Acadia National Park. The agency warns that ground-level ozone concentrations are expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Ozone levels may reach “moderate levels” further inland, according to the Maine DEP, including in all of Androscoggin and Kennebec counties, as well as parts of Cumberland, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Washington and York counties.
Elevated ozone levels can pose a risk to children, older adults and people suffering from respiratory or heart diseases, according to the Maine DEP. Anyone exerting themselves outdoors may also experience health effects, which could include coughing, shortness of breath, throat irritation and mild chest pain.
Ozone levels were already climbing in southern New England on Tuesday, according to the Maine DEP, and winds are expected to bring those conditions to Maine on Wednesday.
The Maine DEP recommends that vulnerable populations avoid strenuous outdoor activities, keep windows closed, and circulate indoor air with fans or air conditioners. Those with asthma are also advised to keep quick-relief medication handy.
Particle pollution levels are also expected to be moderate across the state on Wednesday due to wildfire smoke, the Maine DEP said in its announcement Tuesday. Wildfires in Colorado, which have claimed the lives of three firefighters, had burned nearly 90,000 acres as of Tuesday, according to the Denver Post.
Maine could face up to $50 million in penalties next year due to errors in its payments for federal food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Newly released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture find that Maine’s error rate last year was nearly 11%, the bulk of which were overpayments. That’s in line with the U.S. average. But starting in October of next year, states with error rates above 6% must cover a portion of the SNAP benefits.
Anna Korsen, executive director of Full Plates, Full Potential, said the overpayments aren’t fraud — they’re human error. She said this new cost-shifting policy enacted last year under the Trump administration further complicates the SNAP application process.
“Instead, we could make this program more accessible and more efficient,” Korsen said. “And that would reduce the number of errors and also ensure that Mainers who are eligible for SNAP have access to it.”
She’s urging Congress to delay or reverse the policy under the farm bill that’s currently under consideration.
Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services said it’s taking steps to reduce the error rate, including modernizing its systems and hiring an additional 40 eligibility specialists.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
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