The Maine heat pump goal for 2027, built on an early win
A heat pump is a machine that moves heat into or out of a building using electricity, instead of burning oil or propane to make heat. Maine set its first heat pump target in 2019, when Governor Janet Mills signed a law, LD 1766, requiring 100,000 heat pumps installed in Maine homes and businesses by 2025 and promising households an annual heating bill cut of 300 to 600 dollars. Efficiency Maine, the ratepayer funded trust that runs the incentive, reported about 104,000 installed by 2023, 2 years ahead of that deadline. The same day it announced that win, the state set the Maine heat pump goal for 2027, 175,000 more heat pumps, which it states brings the total installed since Governor Mills took office to 275,000. That combined figure uses the original round 100,000 goal as its starting point, not the 104,000 actually installed, an accounting choice visible only by reading the announcement itself.
The 275,000 total is the state own combined figure, using the original 100,000 goal as its base rather than the 104,000 heat pumps actually installed by 2023.
Show the numbers
| 2019 goal | 100,000 |
| 2023 addition | 175,000 |
| 2027 total | 275,000 |
What is funding the push
A federal grant announced in 2024 helps pay for the new target. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, using money from the Inflation Reduction Act, split 450 million dollars in home energy funding across 5 Northeast states, Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Maine expected between 45 million and 72 million dollars of that grant, administered by Efficiency Maine and the energy office run by the governor, plus a separate 10 million dollars earlier in 2024 for heat pumps in mobile homes. The other side of the mechanism is workforce. The Maine Community College System has trained 558 heat pump installers since the 2019 law, more than 250 of them at Kennebec Valley Community College.
Maine's community colleges have trained 558 heat pump installers.
David Daigler, President of the Maine Community College System. Source 1.
You have to be impressed with what Maine's community of heat pump installers have accomplished in our state.
Michael Stoddard, executive director of Efficiency Maine. Source 1.
How far Maine has come toward the target
Efficiency Maine now counts over 200,000 heat pumps installed in Maine homes and businesses, up from the roughly 104,000 counted in 2023. Measured against the 275,000 combined target, that leaves fewer than 75,000 heat pumps still to install, a gap this article calculated by subtracting one sourced figure from another rather than a number either source states directly, with about a year left before the 2027 deadline.
The count installed so far is from source 3. The gap between installed and target is a subtraction done for this article, not a number either source states directly.
Show the numbers
| Installed so far | 200,000 |
| 2027 target | 275,000 |
| Still needed | 75,000 |
What the switch is doing to oil heat
Independent reporting confirms the pace. The number of Maine homes heating with oil fell 6% in a single year, the biggest annual drop since 2010, and fuel oil now heats just over half of Maine homes, 52%, down from 70% in 2010. Paul Nadeau, a homeowner in Van Buren, once paid up to 4 dollars a gallon for 80 to 90 gallons of oil a month to heat a 1,000 square foot home. After switching to heat pumps he uses more electricity, and the state says the switch saves him money overall.
Maine is paving the way for states across the country seeking to build a clean energy future.
Ali Zaidi, White House National Climate Advisor. Source 1.