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Berlin (German news agency) – Representatives of the cities and municipal companies are calling for more flexible schedules and energy quotas for heating networks. The cities wanted to “expand existing networks and set up new heating networks,” said Helmut Dedy, chief executive of the German Association of Cities, the newspapers of the Funke media group (Sunday editions) before the federal government’s district heating summit on Monday.
For this to happen, however, the legal framework must be right and deadlines must be realistic, with which people and cities can plan. “We see that time is of the essence,” Dedy continued. “But so far the draft law has put too tight a corset.” What is meant is the draft for the new building energy law, which the traffic light coalition is currently deliberating. “The obligation now envisaged to ensure a 50 percent share of renewable energies in the heating network as early as 2030 and a 65 percent share in 2035 cannot be implemented across the board,” says Dedy. If network operators should guarantee that, it means a high economic risk. “In the end, this inhibits investments by network operators and public utilities and slows down expansion.” Ingbert Liebing, Managing Director of the Association of Municipal Enterprises VKU, made a similar statement. “The planned rigid target of achieving a 50 percent share of renewable energy in the heating networks by 2030 could thwart the plans of many municipal utilities,” he told the Funke newspapers. “Everything that will be built as a ‘new’ district heating network in 2026, for example, must now be fully planned.” Renewable heat generation projects could well take up to ten years. In the opinion of the VKU, instead of using fixed quotas, the federal government should use the transformation plans that the heating network operators draw up in accordance with the rules of the BEW (Federal Funding for Efficient Heating Networks) as a basis. “These plans show the best way on site for a heating network to become climate-neutral by 2045 at the latest,” said Liebing. This also requires significantly better funding until the mid-1930s, because the construction of the heating network is a capital-intensive project. According to the federal government, district heating should play an important role in the decarbonisation of the heat supply. Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Construction Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) have therefore invited to the district heating summit on Monday to talk about goals for the industry.