No turning back for high-temperature heat pumps

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The integration of high-temperature heat pumps in industry is growing rapidly. As stated at the High-Temperature Heat Pump Symposium 2026, the new technologies ensure decarbonisation and strategic independence from fossil fuels.

Amid geopolitically uncertain times, a clear and unequivocal development is unfolding across continents: decarbonisation is advancing in all industries. In this major transition, electrification is the most important focus area, and high-temperature heat pumps offer a range of strategic benefits to industry and its needs for high-temperature heat for critical processes.

This message emerged clearly from the HTHP Symposium, which was held in January 2026 at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, with 530 participants – and a record number of exhibitors.

For many years, the primary driving force behind reducing CO2 from industrial heat has long been climate policy and various sustainability targets. The CO2 and climate motivation is still strong, but it is no longer the only or the most important reason why industry is now turning to high-temperature heat pumps.

- Industry's motivation for electrification has become even broader – it is increasingly about establishing strategic independence, resilience and a competitive energy supply. This goes hand in hand with decarbonisation and the green transition and creates a new dynamic with several kinds of incentives that will accelerate the implementation of high-temperature heat pumps, says Benjamin Zühlsdorf, Innovation Director, Danish Technological Institute.

High-temperature heat pumps are therefore no longer a green ‘extra layer’ - they are becoming a core element in how a competitive, robust and independent industry will operate in the years ahead.

Benjamin Zühlsdorf, Danish Technological Institute.

Electrotech Revolution

High-temperature heat pumps are part of a wider development often referred to as The Electrotech Revolution, which can be divided into three pillars: power generation, power distribution and power utilisation. High-temperature heat pumps belong to the third pillar, which focuses on new electricity-based technologies that can converts renewable electricity to useful process heat at the temperatures required by industry.

In this new electricity market, there are long periods with attractive electricity prices that can compete, not least, with natural gas, which for now is the dominant energy source in industry when it comes to processes involving high-temperatures and steam.

At the HTHP Symposium 2026, a wide range of projects and cases from commissioned and planned high-temperature heat pumps were presented, showing that the technologies can now be integrated into many different industrial applications - at process, production, and utility level. Natural refrigerants are likewise being used across applications.

The projects include solutions and applications in the range of 120 to 200 °C in plants from 500 kW to 50 MW. Some of these plants achieve a COP of 5-6, which demonstrates major technological advances as the basis for attractive business cases.

- The price difference between gas and electricity is the biggest single challenge for high-temperature heat pumps. Another large challenge will be to establish the necessary infrastructure to deliver the required electricity, said Elisa Asmelash, analyst at IEA, during the symposium.

The industry accounts for about 30 percent of the total energy consumption, and the IEA has calculated that a further 610 TWh in Europe is needed for electric high-temperature processes if full electrification is to succeed. In return, the IEA estimates that there is a potential for a 56 percent reduction in current fossil fuel consumption for industrial heat demand by switching to electric high-temperature solutions.

Reliability is crucial

Depending on energy taxation and grid tariffs, individual countries can make industrial use of electricity more attractive, for example as Finland has done so that electricity is fully competitive with fossil energy sources.

- Incentives must be created for industry so that companies are rewarded for being flexible electricity consumers and in this way support the future power grid based on solar and wind energy. Here, companies can increase their flexibility by, for example, establishing options for storing both electricity and heat through different ETES solutions, said Elisa Asmelash.

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ETES or electrified thermal energy storage includes technologies that convert renewable electricity (such as wind or solar energy) into high-temperature heat, sore it, and release it for industrial processes or district heating.

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However, the shift from fossil fuels requires industry being confident that heat pumps can deliver just as stable and high a heat output as the existing solutions, which are often gas boilers. One requirement is therefore crucial for industry, namely reliability. Many companies need production facilities to run continuously for several days or weeks. This is why existing gas boilers are often kept as backup alongside the heat pump – just in case.

At the symposium Martin Tukker, Managing Director, Joa Air Solutions, highlighted precisely the heat pumps’ ability to use surplus heat as an important contribution to a good COP when companies are developing business cases. At the same time, he pointed out that the value of heat pumps is often only truly realised when the technology is viewed holistically.

- Heat pumps must be considered holistically. They bring more complexity to processes, but they also provide several types of benefits in the form of increased independence of fossil fuels, fewer emissions, and the possibility to sell surplus heat to a district heating network. If companies invest in thermal storage, and they are willing to adjust their processes so that they are better suited to the heat pumps, it is also possible to achieve a higher COP, said Martin Tukker.

The technology is therefore largely in place, and its full potential is unlocked when system integration, storage, and process optimisation are taken into consideration.

  
Elisa Asmelash, IEA, and Martin Pihl Andersen, Danish Technological Institute

Global supply chains

Reducing emissions in a company’s own operations under Scope 1 and 2 in the GHG Protocol is no longer enough. Companies must also consider achieving Scope 3 targets, and here high-temperature heat pumps can help as industrial process heat makes up a large part of the climate footprint of suppliers and thus the entire supply chain. At the symposium, IKEA shared their strategy for extending sustainability targets across all of its global supply networks, which comprises around 1,000 suppliers.

According to the symposium workshop focusing on textiles, there is currently one example of a customer – H&M – entering into an agreement with a Vietnamese textile supplier on the installation of a high-temperature heat pump, which will help H&M reach its climate targets.

Nils Ahlbrink, Senior Consultant at Danish Technological Institute, emphasised during the symposium that the textile industry typically needs temperatures of up to 120-150 °C in its processes, which technically is a good match with what high-temperature heat pumps can reliably deliver, along with the good opportunities available for utilising surplus heat from textile production.

European lead

So far, Europe is leading when it comes to development, commercialisation, and implementation of high-temperature heat pumps – this is, among other things, shown by IEA HPT Project 68, which is currently mapping the global market for high-temperature heat pumps. But this lead is not a law of nature that will necessary apply forever. Dave Jones, Chief Analyst at the think tank Ember, warns against underestimating developments in other countries.

- Developments in other green technologies show that we must not underestimate China. People talk about China as the first ElectroState, where electricity comes to dominate the energy supply. And we must expect China to become a major player when it comes to high-temperature heat pumps. This will create increased competition, but there is also a need to bring CAPEX down, said Dave Jones at the symposium.

In Europe, it will largely be the EU that must ensure the framework, support and incentives for industry’s conversion to high-temperature heat pumps. Not least, the EU’s forthcoming Electrification Action Plan is expected to accelerate the electrification of European industry.

- Politicians can increase or reduce the pace of the spread of high-temperature heat pumps, but they cannot stop the development. So, it is not a question of whether high-temperature heat pumps will enter industry, it is only a question of how quickly it will happen, said Jozefien Vanbecelaere, Policy Director at European Heat Pump Association, in her conclusion at the symposium.

Jozefien Vanbecelaere, EHPA, here with Jonas Kjær Jensen, DTU.

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HTHP Symposium 2026

• 530 participants
• 37 exhibitors
• 78 presentations
• 45 poster presentations
• 3 sector workshops

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