How can the heat transition succeed? After a meeting of politicians and industry representatives, one thing is certain: 100,000 buildings are to be connected to the district heating network every year. Consumer advocates warn of high prices from monopolies.
It should progress faster in the expansion of district heating. At a meeting, the federal government and the energy sector agreed on the framework conditions for the expansion.
Half of the heat is to be generated in a climate-neutral manner by 2030, with district heating playing a particularly important role. “We believe that district heating can often be an attractive answer to the question of decarbonization,” emphasized Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck during the subsequent press conference. At least 100,000 new buildings are to be connected to the district heating system every year. By 2045, the number of connected buildings should triple compared to today, according to the joint declaration of the participants.
Model Denmark
Germany will take Denmark as an example. 65 percent of households there are already connected to district heating systems, said Habeck. In Germany it is only 14 percent.
Another problem: Around 70 percent of the energy currently comes from climate-damaging fossil fuels, i.e. primarily coal and gas. Just under 20 percent of the district heating came from renewable energies, said the Economics Minister. In Denmark, on the other hand, it is 65 percent. “If we want to achieve something similar by 2045, we have to do what has happened in Denmark in the last 50 years in the next 25 years,” said the Green politician.
By 2030, at least half of the district heating in each network should be produced using renewable energies or waste heat. This should now apply to all networks together – and no longer to each individual one. Nevertheless, it is not new news, according to Habeck: “We have to be faster in all decisions and planning.”
What is district heating?
District heating is heat that is not generated in the residential building, but comes from a power or heating plant in the area. Water is usually heated there, which is then fed into the houses through insulated pipes. About every seventh apartment in Germany is heated with district heating, in 2020 the route length was more than 31,000 kilometers.
Funding for house connections
According to the plans of Economics Minister Habeck and Building Minister Klara Geywitz, house connections are to be promoted. “If district heating is expanded, as a homeowner I will be informed at an early stage and can adjust my investments accordingly,” assured the SPD politician.
At the same time, she emphasized that prices must be attractive and transparent in order to increase the incentive to connect to a heating network. “If I’m at a central heat supply, I have to know: How did the price for my heat supply come about?” said Geywitz.
The building minister advocated using the potential of different energy sources. There must be new technical solutions such as heat pumps that use seawater or waste water or other technologies such as geothermal energy.
different district heating systems take into account
“The tasks that lie ahead of us are enormous,” said Hansjörg Roll from AG Wärmegemeinschaft, an association of industry representatives. Green heating networks should become an important mainstay. “The district heating customers are already the most satisfied,” explained Roll. However, there are more than 3,000 district heating systems across Germany, which vary greatly from region to region. “The laws must take this diversity into account.”
The heat supply ordinance must be amended and there must be better framework conditions for geothermal energy, demanded the industry representative.
consumer centers admonish price transparency at
Ramona Pop from the consumer centers warned that it was not enough to push ahead with the expansion of district heating. Millions of households in metropolitan areas are already heating with district heating, but unregulated monopolies of individual providers have resulted in high prices in some cases. According to Pop, sensible control is needed, for example through a nationwide price regulator. Feeding in by third parties must also be made possible. “And investments must be distributed fairly,” said the consumer advocate.
Pop also called for households in areas with district heating networks to be free to decide whether they want to use district heating or not. Municipalities and network operators, on the other hand, are bringing up a so-called obligation to connect and use: only if it is clear how many users there are will the expensive investments in the networks pay off. Building Minister Geywitz says that from her point of view “no change to the current status quo is necessary”. The topic remains open in the final declaration of the district heating summit.
Politicians and associations have agreed to examine in working groups what stands in the way of the expansion of the networks and how the connection can be made more attractive for consumers. A follow-up meeting is scheduled for autumn.
With information from Hans-Joachim Viewegger, ARD capital studio