Stiebel Eltron to invest 600 million euros to expand heat pump production capacity

German heating company Stiebel Eltron expects to produce a record 80,000 heat pumps by the end of the year, a 60 percent increase over 2021 amid booming demand for environmentally-friendly and electricity-based heating. The company plans to invest more than 600 million euros in the coming years to further expand production capacities, finance research and development, and hire personnel. The growing demand could lead to record sales of 1 billion euros for the company this year.

Heat pumps are seen as a key alternative to gas-fueled heating as Germany seeks to curtail Russian gas imports. Heat pump installations in Germany will total around 250,000 this year, up from 154,000 last year, according to the company. In the first half of 2022, installations rose 25 percent. The German government has set a target of installing 500,000 heat pumps a year in the country beginning in 2024 – a goal that is also backed by heating industry associations, trade unions and consumer protection groups that came together at a recent heat pump summit.

"Together we will create the conditions for the 500,000 new heat pumps to be installed from 2024," said Stiebel Eltron managing director Kai Schiefelbein. “The environmentally friendly heating technology requires no oil and gas and is therefore of outstanding importance both for climate protection and for Germany’s energy supply security,” he added.  Stiebel Eltron, which currently employees 4,000 people in Germany and abroad, is aiming to hire 400 new employees domestically and another 600 at its foreign locations. "The shortage of skilled workers in the green tech industry offers people completely new opportunities, such as when jobs are threatened by technical changes in traditional industrial production," Schiefelbein said. Fellow German manufacturer Viessmann Group announced plans earlier this year to invest 1 billion euros in the next three years to expand its heat pump portfolio.