How should people warm their homes in the future? Whether climate protection, dependency on the previous supplier Russia or rising prices – Germany has agreed to say goodbye to natural gas in the future. The infrastructure is enormous, the natural gas network in the country is an incredible 511,000 kilometers long, mostly underground. The question of whether these pipes should be used to conduct other gases such as biomethane or hydrogen and thus heat apartments and houses is becoming increasingly relevant. Environmental groups are now coming to the conclusion that this plan is not a good solution.
The World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), the Nature Conservation Union (Nabu) and the German Environmental Aid (DUH) warn in a strategy paper that the Süddeutsche Zeitung before a “huge label fraud” and a gateway for a delayed decarbonization and transformation in the heat sector. They call on the legislators in Berlin and Brussels not to declare “heating systems that are technically capable of using hydrogen or biogenic gases” as “renewable”. They fear that natural gas will ultimately continue to flow through the pipelines because there will not be enough “green” gases and they are needed more urgently in industry, in heavy goods transport and in aviation.
The federal government is currently discussing a draft of the building and economics ministry for the building energy law, the European Union is working on an amendment to its building directive. Both times it is about the heat transition towards renewable energies. But the details are disputed. Similar to the debate about e-fuels for the combustion engine in cars, the question is whether climate-neutral gases should also be promoted here. Or whether it will result in extensive electrification.
Almost half of all buildings in Germany are currently heated with natural gas; consumption last year was around 350 terawatt hours (Twh). In order to get away from this, the electricity-based heat pump will play a major role. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) recently announced that from 2024 onwards 500,000 electricity-based heat pumps would be installed every year. However, urban quarters and apartment buildings in particular often require other solutions, and so in addition to district heating or solar thermal energy, “green” gases that could run through the old pipes also come into play.
Hydrogen heaters are inefficient and expensive, environmental groups say
However, experts estimate that hydrogen (H₂) will not play a significant role in energy supply until 2030, because the infrastructure for production, transport and use is still lacking. WWF, Nabu and DUH believe that H₂ will be a coveted but rare commodity for a long time to come and therefore correspondingly expensive. Above all “green” hydrogen, i.e. produced by means of electrolysis and renewable energies. In addition, H₂ heaters are comparatively technically inefficient.
The associations also consider biomethane as a solution to be an illusion. There are currently around 240 plants in Germany in which biogas is converted into biomethane, which can be used as a substitute for natural gas. These contribute eleven Twh to heat generation. Since bioenergy is often produced on farms and connections to the heating network are often far away, the use of biomethane can only be increased slightly, believe WWF, Nabu and DUH. They conclude that “green” gases should only be an option for heating “in exceptional, well-defined and well-justified cases”.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) largely shares the concerns. However, he does not want to exclude hydrogen or biogenic gases from legislation. According to his plans, at least 65 percent of newly installed heating systems should be operated with renewable energies by 2024. That was expressly formulated as open to technology, i.e. also possible with hydrogen, said Habeck on Tuesday at a conference of the VKU municipal utility association in Berlin. The question is: is that a credible promise? Habeck also indicated doubts as to whether the material for heat generation would be available in large quantities and would be affordable.
The representatives of the gas industry see things quite differently. The German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW) estimated in a statement last August that a tenfold increase in biomethane to 100 TWh by 2030 is possible. In addition, from the point of view of the DVGW, it is not correct that hydrogen will be expensive and a scarce resource in the medium to long term. The association called on politicians to set the “right framework conditions” so that H₂ would be available “in more than sufficient quantities” in both 2030 and 2045. The DVGW admitted that it had made optimistic assumptions. However, in a study, the Fraunhofer Institute also advocated not categorically excluding hydrogen for heating in apartments, but rather keeping the option open depending on the local location and situation.