On Wednesday, during the session of the Parliamentary Committee for Energy, Climate and State Assets, MPs learned about the problems of the domestic heating equipment industry producing, among others, heat pumps and pellet boilersin connection with the program “Clean Air”.
Companies cannot withstand Chinese competition
The president of the Chamber of Commerce for Renewable Energy Equipment, Adam Nocoń, warned that in 2023 the number of employees in the industry decreased by approximately 10,000. The reason he gave was that companies cannot withstand unfair competition from importers of cheap but ineffective equipment from China. Nocoń warned that if actions are not taken quickly to change these situations, more than 1,000 people may lose their jobs in the first quarter of this year. people. He emphasized that it may happen in the second or third quarter of 2024 collapse of the Polish heating equipment industry.
Customers were misled
Nocoń pointed out that customers who bought chinese heat pumps, were misled by traders offering such products at prices even reaching the maximum amount of subsidy granted under the “Clean Air” program, i.e. PLN 35,000. PLN, while they were imported to Poland with prices ranging from PLN 1.5 thousand. up to 2 thousand hole. “It turned out that we became the largest importer of pumps in Europe,” Nocoń noted.
Paweł Matusiak, consultant of the Chamber of Commerce for Renewable Energy Equipment, explained that this was the result of the adoption in the regulations “Clean Air” program assumption that in order to obtain a subsidy, it is enough to present the manufacturer’s declaration regarding the efficiency of the heat pump without confirmation of it with a certificate.
“In early 2023, these were recognized unfair actions of Chinese manufacturers and overstatement of heat pump performance data, which stopped the development of the industry in Poland,” Matusiak noted. “This is not an isolated case of a Chinese manufacturer with some overstated parameters, which could suggest an error. We caught 9 Chinese heat pump manufacturers and two certified Chinese laboratories making the same mistake, Matusiak said. He added that in total it was diagnosed in Poland 26 importers of heat pumps operating in this way and a total of 66 heat pump models that do not meet performance standards. “This is a scale that the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) should investigate. Notifications to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection were sent half a year ago in July 2023, with no response to date,” Matusiak said.
New rules
Emil Świerczyński, director of the individual beneficiary department of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW), pointed out that it is not the “Clean Air” program that does not require confirmation of the parameters of heat pumps introduced to the market. “Labeling and ecodesign regulations do not require such documents for these devices, but do require them for other renewable energy devices, including pellet boilers,” he noted. “The ‘Clean Air’ program specifies requirements for the energy efficiency class of heat pumps, but we rely on what is on the label and product card,” he added, admitting that there are cases in which manufacturers declare false data regarding the efficiency class. heat pumps.
He informed that in December 2023, based on consensus with the industry, appropriate solutions were implemented into the “Clean Air” program.
“Tomorrow, at the meeting of the management board of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, the adoption of this change will be considered. As a result, the regulations of the WOI list will change (list of green devices and materials – PAP). We will impose requirements on heat pumps that are not currently imposed on these devices by market regulations. “- he assured. “We will require that for every heat pump that obtains co-financing from the “Clean” program air, the manufacturer or importer has submitted tests performed in an accredited European laboratory, confirming the operational parameters of this heat pump,” Świerczyński announced.
Agnieszka Sosnowska, director of the air protection department of the Ministry of Climate and Environment, confirmed that the ministry had received a change to the Clean Air program, which took into account some of these demands from the renewable energy heating equipment industry. “In particular, as to the stronger positioning of the list of green devices and materials (ZUM), maintained by the Institute of Environmental Protection, after providing relevant documents and test results – confirming that the devices that will be distributed under the program will be absolutely reliable, meeting the expectations of adaptation to climatic zones,” Sosnowska said. “The Minister of Climate and Environment gave a positive opinion on these changes,” she added.
In October 2023, Paweł Mirowski, vice-president of the National Fund for Protection and Environment (NFOŚiGW), informed PAP that he had sent a letter to the Ministry of Climate and Environment regarding recommended changes in “Clean Air” program regarding co-financing the replacement of heat sources with heat pumps.
Mirowski explained that for some time the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management has been carrying out work and industry consultations aimed at eliminating unfavorable phenomena on the heat pump market in Poland. “The idea is to exclude the possibility of granting subsidies for devices whose declared technical data do not correspond to actual parameters,” he emphasized then.
author: Anna Bytniewska
