A new EU-funded initiative, HP SUBSCRIBE, has launched a subscription-based model aimed at accelerating the adoption of heat pumps in commercial and public rented buildings across Europe. The model is designed to eliminate upfront investment costs for landlords and tenants, helping to replace fossil-fuel boilers with high-efficiency heat pumps.
The HP SUBSCRIBE project addresses the landlord-tenant split incentive by shifting equipment ownership and responsibility to a third-party provider. Under this model, landlords install, finance and maintain the heat pumps, while tenants pay a regular subscription fee. This structure offers tenants lower energy costs and modern heating, while landlords benefit from increased property value without capital expenditure.
Pilots will be rolled out over the next three years in France, Austria and Greece. In Ireland, the project will focus on connecting existing heat pump initiatives with service providers and financial stakeholders to support market uptake.
To support wider adoption, HP SUBSCRIBE will also investigate regulatory and financial mechanisms such as white certificate schemes and demand-response incentives. These tools are intended to improve the financial viability of the model and support its scalability across Europe.
The project is funded under the LIFE Programme with a total budget of €1,841,898 and runs from November 2025 to October 2028. The consortium includes organisations from the Netherlands, Greece, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and Ireland, bringing expertise in heating technologies, energy policy, finance and deployment.
“With HP SUBSCRIBE, we want to make clean heating accessible to every building, regardless of ownership structure or financial capacity. This project demonstrates that the energy transition can advance in a way that is fair, scalable and effective,” said Petra Pomper, expert in the building sector at IEECP and project coordinator.
