In recent months, the popularity of heat pumps has been immense. In the subsidy program called “Clean Air”, a whopping 63% of applications were related to heat pumps, which is an unprecedented success. As a result, over 200,000 heat pumps were installed in Poland in 2022, an increase of more than 100% year-on-year. However, reports have emerged that some heat pump owners have recorded much higher heating bills because they are, in fact, heating with electricity since heat pumps are powered by electric energy. Therefore, the government’s energy policy should support prosumers – the owners of photovoltaics and heat pumps. They pay higher electricity bills for choosing an eco-friendly way to heat their homes. Meanwhile, the climate crisis goes on, evident in Southern European countries this summer. On one hand, Poland spent up to 78 billion PLN last heating season supporting traditional heat sources, and on the other hand, they do not sufficiently support eco-friendly heat sources. The “Clean Air” Program allocates 103 billion PLN over ten years – about 10 billion PLN annually for home insulation and heat source exchange. This is ten times less than the support for traditional sources.
“Photovoltaic prosumers who have switched to netbilling since April 1 last year are already complaining – because this billing system is simply not profitable for them. Only prosumers before that date benefit, as they use this virtual energy warehouse. Hence, presently, photovoltaics is not developing at the rate it should,” said Piotr Siergiej, spokesperson for the Polish Smog Alarm, to the eNewsroom.pl. “And the second issue is heat pumps. Consumers who heat with electricity have higher electricity bills. The government promised a while ago that it would not raise the price of electricity for those consuming less than 2000 kWh per year. Now we hear that this limit is to be raised to 4000 kWh. This however doesn’t equate to support for prosumers, especially those using heat pumps, which are very energy-intensive. After all, people using eco-friendly heating sources help mitigate the climate crisis. That’s why I would expect government support and support of state energy policy precisely for these people. If the “Clean Air” program had more government support – if the government’s energy strategy had aimed in a completely different direction over the last 5-8 years – then today we wouldn’t have such an energy crisis, and we wouldn’t have to spend these subsidies, which after all, are taxpayer money. I don’t think anyone believes that in the upcoming heating season, we will afford to add another 80 billion PLN. The budget cannot handle it. It’s clear that we should reconstruct the state’s energy policy so that these gigantic sums supporting sectors based on fossil fuels would be redirected towards supporting low-emission or no-emission sectors, i.e., renewable energy sources,” recommends Siergiej.
