Solar heating vs. heat pumps
- Emin Askerov
- Apr 29
- 1 min read
I'm deep into research on large-scale solar heating vs. heat pumps – and the findings are fascinating.
At the household level, heat pumps dominate. They’re fast to install, scalable, and increasingly efficient. But when you move into industrial heat and district heating at a serious scale, the picture flips.
Solar thermal projects start pulling ahead. At scale, solar heat beats heat pumps on operating costs, emissions, and resilience. Once built, the sun’s energy is basically free. And in regions with high solar irradiation and large, steady heat demand, the economics are hard to ignore.
The trade-offs? Solar thermal takes longer to build, needs a serious land area, and is location-dependent. It’s not a plug-and-play solution everywhere.
But if we are serious about decarbonizing industrial and district heat, especially in Europe, we need to think beyond just heat pumps. Scaling solar heat is slow... but if you want cheap, clean heat over decades, it's probably worth the patience.
Curious to hear from others: where do you see solar heating fitting into the clean heat transition?
