Beneficial electrification for better barns: Where can heat pumps help on the farm?
Overview
This market study will estimate the potential benefits of using heat pumps to heat, cool, or produce hot water in dairy, swine, and turkey farms in Minnesota. The project team will engage livestock farmers and heat pump manufacturers to identify opportunities and barriers for realizing efficient fuel-switching measures. These findings will be leveraged to create a roadmap for capturing heating and cooling savings in these promising applications.
The project team will develop a prioritized list of fuel-switching applications in livestock barns with improved savings estimates and clarified product requirements to support market adoption. The project will increase farmer, manufacturer, and utility awareness of electrification opportunities in livestock barns.
Highlights
Objective
- Identify opportunities and challenges in using heat pumps to heat or cool barn spaces, water, or food products in livestock barns in Minnesota.
- Generate a prioritized list of fuel-switching applications in barns.
- Outline next steps that stakeholders can take to support beneficial heat pump adoption in barns.
Scope
- Classify heating and cooling loads, methods, and requirements in Minnesota livestock barns.
- Establish the technical, economic, and achievable efficiency potential of heat pumps applied in livestock barns as a fuel-switching measure.
- Develop a roadmap of fuel-switching opportunities and barriers for heat pump application in barns and next steps for key stakeholders.
Non-energy benefits
- Support Minnesota farmers with cost-saving and/or productivity-enhancing measure development.
- Improve farmer health and safety with strategies that reduce fire risks and onsite combustion emissions.
- Support rural economic development.
Funding
This project was supported in whole by a grant from the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Division of Energy Resources through the Conservation Applied Research and Development (CARD) program.