Gov. Janet Mills (D) announced Tuesday that Maine is expected to receive between $45 million and $72 million in federal funding to “accelerate the adoption of heat pump technology” in homes across the state.

Five New England states — including Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island — were given a combined total of $450 million in federal funding for the joint New England Heat Pump Accelerator project.

This money was sourced through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program, which was funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.

According to the United States Department of Energy (DOE), the Inflation Reduction Act made “the single largest investment in climate and energy in American history, enabling America to tackle the climate crisis, advancing environmental justice, securing America’s position as a world leader in domestic clean energy manufacturing.”

The New England Heat Pump Accelerator project aims to “leverage the power of a multi-state market to rapidly accelerate the adoption” of various heat pump technologies in single-family homes and other residential buildings in the region.

The goal of this project is to install nearly 580,000 heat pumps throughout New England, covering 65 percent of “residential-scale” heating and cooling sales by 2030 and 90 percent by 2040.

40 percent of this funding will be reserved for expenditures in “low-income and disadvantaged communities.”

This project will “prioritize collaboration and information-sharing between states” and feature three primary components: the Market Hub, the Innovation Hub, and the Resource Hub.

The Market Hub will focus on working with manufacturers, distributors, and contractors to “drive sales, ensure adequate stocking, and promote quality installations of heat pumps that are well-suited to New England’s climate and housing stock.”

It will be the responsibility of the Innovation Hub to “support heat pump adoption among low- and moderate-income households” and execute up to two “large-scale, multi-year projects.”

The Resource Hub will serve as a “central portal” for distributors, contractors, program implementers, and other stakeholders to “access important data and educational resources.”

Maine’s share of the $450 million will be awarded to the Maine Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) and administered by Efficiency Maine.

“Maine’s nation-leading transition to heat pumps is creating good-paying jobs, curbing our reliance on expensive and harmful fossil fuels, and cutting costs for Maine families,” said Gov. Mills in a press release Tuesday. “This significant award will continue our momentum and ensure folks across Maine, particularly those in rural Maine, stay comfortable and safe in their homes and save them money in the process.”

“I thank the Biden-Harris Administration for this funding and for its support of our work to expand the use of heat pumps to lower energy costs, strengthen our economy, and protect our environment,” Mills said.

“Maine has set an example for the nation on how efficient, climate-friendly technologies like heat pumps can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs and support new businesses, and save people money on their heating and cooling bills,” said Hannah Pingree, Director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF), and Dan Burgess, Director of the GEO.

“This award from through the Inflation Reduction Act will ensure Maine can meet our ambitious target of 275,000 heat pumps installed by 2027, and we thank the U.S. EPA and our partner states for their support of this important initiative,” Pingree and Burgess said.

“For the good of the Maine economy, and in order to meet the ambitious goals of Maine’s climate action plan, it is imperative that we grow our programs to scale up the adoption of heat pump technology,” said Michael Stoddard, Executive Director of Efficiency Maine. “The funding from the Carbon Pollution Reduction Grant comes at a critical juncture as Maine seeks to ramp up its programs.”

Click Here to Read Gov. Mills’ Full Press Release

This past summer, Mills celebrated that Maine had met her administration’s goal of installing 100,000 heat pumps in the state two years ahead of schedule.

In light of this, Mills set an updated benchmark of having an additional 175,000 heat pumps installed in the state by 2027.

A few months later, the United States Climate Alliance — of which Mills is a co-chair — announced a new commitment to increasing heat pump usage nationwide four-fold by 2030, reaching a total of 20 million heat pump installations by the end of the decade, with “40% of the benefits flow[ing] to disadvantaged communities.”

Earlier this year, Mills announced alongside several others, including Burgess and Stoddard, that Maine had been awarded $10 million in federal funding to subsidize the installation of heat pumps in mobile and manufactured homes throughout the state.

With this funding, Maine plans to install approximately 675 heat pumps in manufactured and mobile homes owned by low-income residents living in towns with populations less than 10,000.