Interview with Jo Southernwood, Energy Research Engineer and Consultant at IERC and leader of HP4ALL’s Heat Pumps (HP) Value Chains – Barriers & Skills Analysis work package
What is the objective behind the analysis of barriers & skills in the HP value chain? How is it performed?
To understand how HP4All can help to accelerate the market roll out of heat pumps in Europe, we first needed to understand more about the heat pump market in each of our pilot regions.
We wanted to find out: what are the drivers and barriers that stimulate or restrict the demand for skills relating to heat pump system design, installation, commissioning and ongoing maintenance? Are those drivers and barriers the same or different in each pilot region? And what do heat pump experts think would be the best solution to overcome these challenges?
To find the answers to these questions we spoke to heat pump experts from within the three pilot regions, (Austria, Ireland, Spain), and beyond to gather opinions from those who experience these challenges every day. Through a combination of interviews, focus groups and online surveys, we asked those experts to tell us about the most significant challenges for the heat pump roll out and the most important actions that can be taken to dramatically scale up the heat pump markets around Europe. The online surveys gave us information about what the experts think. The in-depth telephone interviews and focus group helped us to understand why they hold those opinion and allowed us to dive deeper into understanding the finer details of the problem and the possible solutions that might work in practice.
