Air conditioning is mostly needed while the sun is shining, and so electricity of A/C can come mostly from photovoltaics (plus batteries). So I think this technology is not quite as important. Sure, its nice to reduce electricity usage! But cheaper heat storage, for winter, seems more important.

If you're heating with non-fossil-fuels you're doing it with heat pumps, just like AC, just with the hot side inside and the cool side outside.