Scholz on the energy transition: “500,000 new heat pumps every year”

Chancellor Scholz has announced a massive expansion of renewable energies. Heat pumps should be the heating system of the future. But there are also doubts about their climate friendliness.

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to significantly boost the expansion of renewable energies: “From 2024 we will be installing 500,000 new heat pumps every year,” he said at the conference of the Association of Municipal Companies. Heat pumps should be a climate-friendly heat supply for German households – unlike oil and gas. The gas-fired power plants are also to be significantly expanded. In the future, they should be able to be operated with hydrogen.

Energy must remain affordable

“Hydrogen can and will replace natural gas, oil and coal – particularly in industry, in the energy sector, but also in air, sea and heavy-duty transport,” he said. Electricity demand will increase from 600 terawatt hours today to 750 terawatt hours by 2030. 80 percent of this would then be generated by renewable energies.

“By 2030 we want to build up ten gigawatts of electrolysis capacity in Germany – that’s twice as much as originally planned in the national hydrogen strategy,” he added, referring to hydrogen production. Energy in Germany must remain affordable.

Habeck and Scholz on the same course

Scholz supported the announcement by Economics Minister Robert Habeck to enable an industrial electricity price – by allowing companies to buy green electricity directly from the energy producer. The federal government will promote so-called power purchase agreements between buyers and producers of renewable energies, said Scholz.

Habeck announced on Monday that he would quickly implement a concept for an industrial electricity price in Germany. According to Habeck, the production costs for renewable energies are five to nine cents. This money should reach the companies without detours, for example through direct contracts. “That would be part of an industrial electricity price from the market,” said Habeck.

Heat pumps are booming

In the first three quarters of 2022, the production of heat pumps increased by almost 50 percent, the Federal Statistical Office announced. In 2021, such a device was installed in half of the new, completed residential buildings. According to the Federal Association of Heat Pumps, sales of heating heat pumps increased from 120,000 in 2020 to 154,000 in 2021 to 236,000 last year.

Heat pumps extract heat from the ambient air, the groundwater or the ground. But you need a lot of electricity – the more of it comes from renewable energies, the more climate-friendly this heating option is.

Refrigerant contains toxic gases

However, the use of heat pumps is not without its problems: the refrigerant, which is crucial for the effectiveness of the pump, contains in most cases artificial gases from the substance group of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS). Research by NDR, WDR and “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ). These F-gases are considered to be so toxic that they are to be largely banned in Europe in just a few years.

Even if the refrigerant in heat pumps is actually in a closed circuit, there is a risk. The gases can escape, especially during disposal.

“We can and will succeed in the energy transition”

Nevertheless, Chancellor Scholz is confident: the future belongs to renewable energies, for cost reasons, for environmental reasons and for safety reasons, he says. Scholz referred to progress in the expansion of green electricity from wind and sun and the planned construction of new gas power plants that can then be converted to hydrogen. “We can and will succeed in the energy transition,” said Chancellor Scholz.

After the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Germany succeeded in making itself independent of fossil fuels from Russia. Germany is going into spring and the coming years stronger.