Stadtwerke München (SWM) will spend nine and a half billion euros by 2040 to convert its heat supply to renewable energies. Gas and coal as fossil fuels for heating should then be completely replaced. To achieve this, the city’s subsidiary, one of Germany’s largest energy companies, wants to build ten new geothermal energy plants with 50 boreholes. The district heating network in the city center, which is intended to make a large part of the heating system climate-neutral, is to be expanded from the current length of 1,000 to 1,600 kilometers. The federal government is expected to contribute around a third of the investment costs.
Stadtwerke managing director Karin Thelen presented this transformation plan publicly for the first time on Thursday evening at the Climate Council. The expansion of the district heating network is scheduled to begin in 2025. “We want to lay 30 to 50 kilometers of new lines every year,” said Thelen in the Climate Council. The conversion of SWM’s heating offering is the core and prerequisite for the heating transition in the city, which, alongside the renovation of buildings, is considered the second decisive factor on the way to Munich’s climate neutrality. Environmental officer Christine Kugler had also previously presented the basis for this in a public premiere at the Climate Council: the city’s heat plan.
It presents in detail what options Munich residents have to switch from fossil raw materials such as natural gas to renewable energy sources in their building. This heat plan should be seen as “a service” for citizens and has no binding effects, said Kugler in the Climate Council. The municipal utility’s district heating network will be central to the changeover, especially in districts close to the city center. This now contains a portion of fossil energy that is to be replaced by geothermal energy. The rest will mainly be supplied by heat pumps that heat with energy from the air or groundwater.
In the Climate Council, the municipal utilities’ transformation plans and the environmental department’s heat plan met with approval from many quarters. In a statement written afterwards, representatives of business and crafts also expressed themselves positively. “The timely submission of the municipal heat planning for the state capital enables the people of Munich and the craft and medium-sized businesses to make well-informed decisions about their future heat supply,” said Franz Xaver Peteranderl, President of the Chamber of Crafts for Munich and Upper Bavaria.
The guilds for plumbing, heating and air conditioning (SHK) as well as for painters and varnishers also praised the early submission of the heat plan. Munich is the first major city in Germany to make this service available to citizens. Reliable specifications and security during planning are an important prerequisite for “advising customers in a technology-friendly manner and developing suitable individual solutions,” said Olaf Zimmermann, head of the SHK guild. “As a result, consumer uncertainty, which is currently determining the heating market, should disappear relatively quickly.”
The new Federal Building Energy Act came into force on January 1st, setting the legal framework. New buildings must have heating that is powered by 65 percent renewable energy. At the same time, defective oil, gas or coal heating systems should be replaced with an ecological variant. These new rules should apply to cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants on June 30, 2026.
The heating plan should provide information about which form of heating is appropriate. However, it is currently not visible to citizens because it must first be officially approved by the city council. At the moment, however, no one knows whether this will take place as planned on April 16th. There had previously been massive anger in the green-red coalition when Mayor Dieter Reiter and his SPD parliamentary group publicly put forward five demands and thus harshly attacked environmental officer Kugler. At an unusually early point in time when there would have been a long time for internal consultations. More than a week later, Green Party Mayor Dominik Krause reacted very tightly to this. “An unusual occurrence. You have to ask him yourself why the mayor elected him.”
Since then, the two coalition partners have eyed each other with suspicion. Basically, the mayor initially supports the heating plan. “I welcome the fact that we are presenting concrete heat planning for Munich with this resolution in order to provide citizens with clarity about what the complicated legal situation means for them personally in individual cases,” explained Reiter. However, the nationwide transformation process is causing uncertainty. “That’s why it’s important to me to provide the best possible support to citizens, but also to our businesses and companies, in switching to environmentally friendly heat supply.” He also reiterated the main demand he made in his first public statement. With him there will be “no tightening of the legal deadlines” for a heating replacement. Reiter discovered that the environmental department wanted to do this and, according to his own statements, prevented it from happening.
Environmental officer Kugler immediately dismissed this as a “misunderstanding”. If you listen to the coalition partner, the Greens/Pink List faction, there is also uncertainty there, but especially about what the Mayor and his faction are planning. Whether they actually want to take part in what is probably the largest ecological project or whether they want to gain political benefit from it through targeted questions and doubts. From the Greens’ point of view, there was never any question of early compulsory heating replacement or a network connection; the option was only described in a few lines in the draft resolution. At the suggestion of the SPD, this passage was removed.
If the coalition partners ultimately come to an agreement, the Department for Climate and Environmental Protection will launch a major publicity campaign on the heat plan. However, this will only be the start, the heat transition will permanently change the work of your house, said Kugler. “We will go much more actively into the neighborhoods and work with the citizens to develop creative solutions to specific problems.”