IIs this the end of the heating debate? According to the Building Energy Act, the Bundestag passed the law on municipal heat planning. It obliges large cities to draw up a heat plan by June 30, 2026 at the latest. Cities with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants have two years longer. Homeowners should find out from the plans whether the district heating network will be expanded to them, whether the gas network will continue to be operated with hydrogen or whether nothing of the sort is planned. Then you have to ensure that your next new heating system uses at least 65 percent renewable energy sources.
After the excitement surrounding the heat pump offensive by Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), the expansion of the district heating networks is intended to dampen dissatisfaction about the upcoming heat transition. So far, only 6 percent of residential buildings in Germany are heated with district heating – hot water that flows from power plants to the houses via a pipe system. 100,000 buildings should be added every year, as was agreed at a district heating summit in June. District heating is to be expanded, especially in densely built-up inner city districts. Unlike single-family homes, heat pumps cannot be installed as easily there.
“It is assumed that up to 50 percent of urban areas can be heated with district heating,” says Kerstin Andreae, chairwoman of the board of the Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW). But expanding this network takes time and costs a lot of money. The BDEW estimates the costs to be between 2,000 and 3,000 euros per meter of new cable. These are financed through the connection fee that property owners have to pay and also through government funding. From the association’s perspective, there is still room for improvement in the latter. “The 800 million euros in funding for the expansion of the heating networks for 2024 is too little. “It would require 2 to 3 billion euros per year,” says Andreae.
Of compulsory affiliation and protection of existing assets
One city that has already started its district heating offensive is Hanover. The state capital of Lower Saxony wants to become climate neutral by 2035. The change in heat generation is one of the central building blocks. Since the beginning of this year, a new statute has been in force in Hanover, according to which owners of properties in certain districts are obliged to heat with district heating “if a district heating connection can be established and heating is to be significantly changed or newly installed,” as the city administration says on its website writes. Existing heating systems are protected, but the owners must then apply for exemption from district heating use. The district heating network is being expanded by the municipal supplier Enercity, which is 75 percent owned by the city.
Neither the law on municipal heat planning nor the Building Energy Act provide for a compulsory connection. However, municipalities can stipulate it if the expansion of district heating is only economically feasible. Andreae does not expect broad social resistance because of such statutes. “The suppliers’ customer centers are currently being overwhelmed with inquiries from owners who want district heating. The problem is not the connection requirement, but that companies need time to expand.” Good planning on site is important: “Once a street is opened up in a city, for example for new power lines or fast internet, a few years often have to pass “before the road can be opened up again.”
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