The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program provides grants to states, local governments, tribes, and territories to develop and implement plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollution. Among the projects selected by the EPA was a multistate proposal, The New England Heat Pump Accelerator (Accelerator), a $450 million award to accelerate the adoption of cold-climate air-source heat pumps, ground-source heat pumps, and heat pump water heaters across New England. Maine is one of five states participating in the initiative, along with Connecticut (project lead), Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
The Accelerator comprises three program pillars: a market hub, resource hub, and innovation hub. Maine’s portion of the market hub budget is approximately $43 million dollars for midstream heat pump incentives and their administration. For the Triennial Plan VI period, Maine is planning to invest these funds to promote heat pump water heaters through Efficiency Maine’s Retail and Distributor Initiatives. The resource hub will share learnings across the region, including program, market, and building data resources for consumer and contractor education.
Innovation hub projects will be designed to overcome barriers to adoption of heat pumps through innovations in technology, program design, and program delivery. There are two different innovation hub categories: “state-level grants,” which will be larger, multimillion dollar projects to scale innovative heat pump solutions, and “quick-start grants,” which are expected to be smaller in scale and cost between $100,000 and $400,000, that will focus on a particular technology or a particular community.
The Efficiency Maine Trust will be the administrator for the larger, state-level grants and plans to manage several innovation projects through its innovation program and competitive solicitation(s). The Trust will be releasing a Request for Information (RFI) in October 2025 to collect project, technology, and approach suggestions. Please click here for more information on the RFI and innovation projects.
