According to the draft law, countries should provide plans for the heat transition

Status: 05/24/2023 5:00 p.m

States or municipalities should submit plans for the heat transition. According to media reports, this emerges from a draft law. The best solutions are to be found on the basis of information on the type of heating and energy consumption of buildings.

According to media reports, according to the will of the federal government, the federal states should submit plans in the coming years on how the heat transition should be implemented locally. For large cities, these heat plans should be ready by the end of 2026, smaller cities should have two years longer.

This emerges from a draft law of the federal government, which is available to various media. The media company Table Media and the “Bild” had previously reported on the draft bill. A ministry spokeswoman told the AFP news agency that the proposal is currently being coordinated by the department.

The Greens fear a government crisis if the FDP maintains its blocking stance.
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Information on the type of heating and power consumption

The federal states should be responsible for implementation, but they can transfer this task directly to the municipalities. As part of an inventory analysis, the first plan is to survey the current state of building heating systems in a municipality. For example, they should provide information on how specific buildings or companies are heated and how much energy is consumed.

Specifically, according to the dpa, “building-specific annual final energy consumption of grid-bound energy sources over the last three years in kilowatt hours per year” should be recorded as far as possible, along with the address, use and year of construction. In a second step, heat potentials are to be analyzed on site. Accordingly, the government also wants to collect information on heating networks – including the utilization or route lengths.

The Federal Building Ministry stated that the aim of the law was that “states and local authorities could identify the best heat supply options for them and then implement them on site with the participation of the relevant stakeholders”. The core of heat planning is “the division of the planned area into areas that can be supplied centrally via a heating network or decentrally via a separate system in the building, for example a heat pump or a biomass boiler,” it said.

The content of the project is related to the Building Energy Act (GEG) for the installation of new heating systems, which is currently the subject of heated debate in the traffic light coalition. For example, in buildings that soon want to be supplied with district heating, it would not be necessary to install new heating systems, which could be costly.

opposition sees “Bureaucracy Monster”

Construction Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) had already announced the municipal heat plan. This “creates security for homeowners and municipalities when modernizing the heating systems,” Geywitz wrote on Twitter. Habeck justified the project by saying that the heat transition can only be implemented locally, but there is a strong need for coordination.

The opposition criticized the plan as unrealistic. “After the heating hammer comes the green heating pillory,” CSU General Secretary Martin Huber told the dpa news agency. By collecting data on the heating habits of citizens, the Greens wanted to create a “bureaucratic monster”. However, the SPD-led Ministry of Construction is in charge of the law.

SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert rejected such criticism. It’s about data that is known anyway, he said RTL and ntv. The aim is only to systematize them. “If you want to plan heat, you have to know how much heat is needed,” emphasized Kühnert.

Across the parties, the prime ministers of the federal states warn against hasty decisions.
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Staff shortages could complicate plans

The German Association of Towns and Municipalities warned that the acute lack of staff in the municipalities could endanger the project. Managing Director Gerd Landsberg warned that a third of the workforce would leave by 2035. “That will also be a stumbling block for municipal heating planning,” he told the “Bild”.

Praise came from the association of municipal companies. With the heat plans, municipalities have freedom for solutions that are most suitable and the most cost-effective for citizens. “They can see from the plans of their municipality whether only a heat pump with connection to the electricity grid is really an option or whether there will be the possibility of being connected to the district heating network or whether the gas network in front of the door will be converted to green gases, such as biomethane or hydrogen should.” A detailed register is not needed.

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