There are high expectations for the event taking place on Monday district heating summitto which Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Construction Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) invited industry representatives.
In addition to a reform of the building energy law – the so-called heating law – the traffic light coalition is also planning a reform of municipal heating planning. According to the draft law, states and municipalities should present concrete plans in the coming years on how they want to convert their heating infrastructure to be climate-neutral. This is intended to give citizens an important orientation by letting them know whether their house will soon be connected to a district or local heating network or whether they should convert their heating system to a heat pump in the foreseeable future.
Removing obstacles to district heating
From the point of view of the municipal utility, an obligation for homeowners to connect to the heating network is an option. It is “not unreasonable to talk about an obligation for households to connect to an existing heating network,” said Ingbert Liebing, general manager of the Association of Municipal Enterprises (VKU), the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, NOZ”.
“On Monday, the main focus should be on overcoming the major hurdles for district heating together in order to bring more climate-friendly energy to our cities,” emphasized Liebing to the ZfK. “As a municipal utility, we want to give the citizens the best possible support with the heat transition. We can. We want. Now Berlin decides how much and what we are allowed to do.”
District heating needs three things
Three things are needed for district heating as an option for climate-neutral heating, which the federal government could initiate on Monday: “More time, more money and more acceptance,” explained the VKU boss.
Instead of the planned rigid targets to achieve a share or a quota of 50 percent of renewable energy in the heating networks by 2030, the federal government should better use the transformation plans as a basis that the heating network operators are already preparing. “These plans show the best way on site for a heating network to become climate-neutral by 2045 at the latest,” said Liebing.
Funding until the mid-2030s
“For the densification and expansion of district heating networks and large-scale renewable heat generation, we also need significantly more funding, steadily and reliably until the mid-2030s,” says Liebing. “In addition, we are also promoting understanding, because many citizens are unsettled by the heat pump-for-all discussion.” (gun/hp with material from dpa)