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Whether history might not repeat itself, asks Nico Beckert with regard to the market for heat pumps. German companies were once world leaders in the solar industry, but today Chinese suppliers dominate the market. Now the Chinese are also highly active in the booming heat pump market. If they were to drive European suppliers out of the market again through favorable prices, then, Marx would be right, history would repeat itself as a farce.
The committees in the EU Parliament have reached agreement on their position on the AI Act. This means that Brussels is already further ahead than Berlin. The German government has not yet reached an agreed position, analyzes Corinna Visser.
According to the will of the EU Parliament, the advertising industry may no longer make flowery advertising promises such as “environmentally friendly” or “climate neutral”. The truthfulness of these statements would have to be proven in detail. And sustainability seals are also subject to strict scrutiny. Leonie Düngefeld knows the details.
Matthias Wulff
Feature
Heat pumps: not afraid of China
The defense and technology group Rheinmetall has won a 770 million euro contract for the production of heat pump compressors. The company is thus investing in an important new business field and could simultaneously reduce the dependence of the European heat pump industry on international supply chains. The company has already been awarded the contract in late 2022 – but it only became recently known that the order is for heat pump compressors.
Rheinmetall’s investments are an “important decision“, Thomas Nowak, Secretary General of the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) told Table.Media. There is a strong dependence on Asia for compressors, according to Nowak. Rheinmetall’s investment would give heat pump manufacturers another purchase option for key components and create “a sourcing point within Europe”, Nowak said. The creation of globally distributed production standard locations would be useful to make the heat pump ramp-up “resilient”, the expert said.
The compressors are often the most expensive component of heat pumps. They account for over a quarter of the costs and are responsible for compressing and heating the coolant.
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