Here, a brand new press that cuts sheet metal cutting time tenfold. That is 25 tons per day. And 2 million euros of investment. There, two new stations for the faster bending of the metal casings in which the components essential to the operation of the heat pumps will be screwed and welded. Further on, redesigned assembly lines to increase workshop speeds. Outside, a 6,000 square meter extension planned for 2024.
And in front of the entrance to the Atlantic factory in Billy-Berclau (Pas-de-Calais), the construction site of a three-storey building which will house a research center within a few months. That is 25 million euros of investment in order to have climatic chambers where 120 people can carry out tests of all kinds on the machines.
The factory load plan is all mapped out. “The first year, in 2016, we produced 30,000 heat pumps. We achieved 130,000 in 2022. We are now aiming for 300,000”explains Christophe Guidon, the site director, pointing out that most of the components are produced in France.
Because the market is experiencing spectacular growth. In a context of a stated desire to reduce greenhouse gases in construction, the projections are extremely favorable on a continental scale. The European Commission expects thirty million additional machines to be installed by 2030 throughout the Union (EU).
The laws of thermodynamics
The European Heat Pump Association (EHPA), the industry lobby, talks about“roaring years” to qualify the next decades with a hoped horizon of sixty million machines by 2030, against twenty million in operation today, most of them manufactured in Europe. “Sales hit records with nearly three million units sold in 2022, a 39% year-on-year increase”estimates the EHPA in an analysis published Monday, June 19.
The performance of this technology has made them successful at a time when energy has once again become an individual and collective concern: for each kilowatt hour of electricity used to draw in the outside air, transfer the calories to the refrigerant, compress it, then restore the calories in the water inside a home, the device produces, on average, more than 3 kilowatt hours of heat, and up to 6 kilowatt hours for the most efficient machines. The magic of the laws of thermodynamics, known for a very long time, and applied, in reverse, to operate refrigerators.
You have 77.41% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.