Andreas Bangheri knows how to read the wind. He’s been hang gliding and piloting small aircraft around the mountains of his native Austria for years. And he can tell that things are changing.
“The wind is getting stronger and stronger. It’s becoming more of an issue,” says Bangheri, CEO of the heat pump manufacturer Heliotherm. “We had a really strong foehn year this year,” he adds, referring to a dry, fierce wind that rushes down mountainsides—also known as Chinook or Santa Ana winds in the US.
Mountain winds can be warm but still cool enough to bother heat pumps, says Bangheri. Cold, windy storms,