Maine will receive between $45 million and $72 million from Washington to install electric heat pumps – a technology that already benefits from a well-established state subsidy – for home heating and cooling and hot water heaters, Gov. Janet Mills announced Monday.

It’s part of $450 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island to broaden the use of heat pumps, which heat and cool buildings using electricity rather than fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas. The federal funding will pay to install 580,000 heat pumps in the five states.

Efficiency Maine estimates that with a budget of $42 million, it will be able to convert about 7,750 homes from fossil fuels to being entirely heated and cooled with heat pumps.

A typical home will be outfitted with one to four heat pumps depending on its size, condition and layout, Efficiency Maine said.

Precise details of how the money will be distributed are still being developed, but generally it will be incorporated into current Efficiency Maine programs.

“This significant award will continue our momentum and ensure folks across Maine, particularly those in rural Maine, stay comfortable and safe in their homes and save them money in the process,” Mills said.

The goal is for heat pumps to reach at least 65% of residential-scale heating, air conditioning and water heating sales in the five states by 2030 and 90% by 2040, according to the EPA. The funding also will provide training for contractors to integrate electricity into manufacturer and distributor training.

The program requires 40% of the money be earmarked for low-income and disadvantaged communities.

Efficiency Maine rebates for heat pumps of up to $8,000 are available and distributed according to income.

The multistate proposal, called the New England Heat Pump Accelerator, will promote collaboration and information-sharing between the states. One effort will be to execute up to two large-scale, multi-year projects, such as heat pump strategies for multifamily buildings and mobile homes.

Heat pumps extract heat from outdoor air or underground and transfer it inside, instead of heating a coil in a furnace, for instance. They also cool homes by pulling heat from indoors and dumping it outside or underground.

In July 2023, Maine surpassed its goal of installing 100,000 new heat pumps two years early. Mills then set a new target of installing another 175,000 heat pumps in Maine by 2027.