From 2024, every newly installed heating system should be powered by 65 percent renewable energy. The coalition committee has thus in his marathon session confirms what a draft law from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate proposes.
For many consumers, the requirement will mean installing a heat pump. But combinations with the old gas and oil boiler are also permitted if two-thirds of the heating energy comes from renewable sources. The law is to be passed before the summer break, according to the traffic light government.
A number of exceptions, transitional periods and technical combination options are still provided for. For example, a hardship provision was planned in the law from the outset.
“Older ladies and gentlemen who say that this is an investment that I cannot afford, we will exempt them from the obligation to replace after 30 years,” said Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) on Tuesday in the ZDF program “Lanz”. There is already an obligation to replace fossil heating systems after 30 years of operation. However, there will also be exceptions for hardship cases in the 65 percent target for renewable energies.
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A transition period of three years is planned for the replacement of a damaged fossil heating system. Experts expect that a market for leasing heating systems will emerge for this area of ​​application – around 250,000 heating systems break down every year.
This gives consumers time to wait for the foreseeable drop in prices for heat pumps. Two factories belonging to major manufacturers are currently under construction in Slovakia and Poland, which will produce several hundred thousand heat pumps per year. A heat pump currently costs several times more than a gas heater.
A transitional period of up to ten years for replacing heating systems should apply if it is foreseeable that a building will be connected to a district heating network. According to the decision of the coalition committee, the transitional periods and exceptions should now be “fine-tuned” again.
250,000
Heating break every year in Germany.
The traffic light coalition wants to examine state funding for replacing heating systems from the Climate and Transformation Fund. It is fed by the revenue from the European trade in COâ‚‚ pollution rights and is filled to the brim with 100 billion euros.
The traffic light coalition has confirmed, albeit somewhat vaguely, a social gradation in the funding of heating system replacement: “Unreasonable hardships, including for social compensation, will be avoided and social aspects will be adequately taken into account; also for tenants,” the resolution states.
What the exact rules will ultimately be is still up for negotiation. Unusual for two governing parties: After the coalition committee ended, the Greens and the FDP each published a paper with their interpretation of the resolutions. In the heating sector, they differ mainly on the issue of hydrogen. The FDP is proud that in the future gas heaters can also be installed that are only capable of running on hydrogen, but initially burn fossil gas.
The Greens stress that this is subject to a transformation plan for the gas networks. “A mere declaration of intent is not enough,” they write. If the Greens get their way on the issue of subsidies, low-income earners will not have to pay more for the installation of a heat pump than for a gas heating system. Interest rate reductions will be possible for people who earn more money and there will continue to be tax reductions.
