Germany’s thermal transition: Weill sees Habeck’s heating ban as unrealistic

DThe Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Stefan Weil, has criticized the plans of Federal Economy Minister Robert Habek to ban heating with liquid and gas fuels. Time planning is unrealistic and ends up doing more harm than good, said the Bild am Sonntag SPD politician. “People are now in a panic ordering new gas and oil heating systems. And many problems are not solved: Are there enough installers? What about people who can’t afford a heat pump?”

He expects Habek to urgently meet with the construction and housing industries, heating engineers and the energy industry and check by what time frame the goal can be achieved, Weill demanded. “We need longer and therefore more realistic transition periods when transforming the heating system.”

“Don’t encourage the purchase of every heat pump”

A ban on installation from 2024 is unrealistic. Weil argued for linking state aid for heating system upgrades to income: “We should not subsidize the purchase of each heat pump with a fixed amount, but allocate state aid according to income.”

Background – discussion of a bill providing for tougher rules for installing new heating systems from 2024. According to an agreement reached by the traffic light coalition in the spring of 2022, starting in 2024, every newly installed heating system must be 65 percent renewable. This could lead to a virtual ban on new combustion heaters.

Panic Buying Warning

Economics Minister Robert Habek (Greens) promised an aid program. However, the details of the transitional and operational periods, which are important for many owners and tenants, have not yet been determined. Coalition partner FDP is also facing resistance to the first bill of the ministries of economy and construction. Industry experts cautioned against an overly exploratory approach. The policy should be based on the realities of the market.

The Parliamentary Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economy, Stefan Wenzel (The Greens), warned against panic buying. “Simply sticking with oil and gas for as long as possible could be significantly more expensive in the long run than switching to climate-friendly heating in the next few years,” he told Zeit Online. “Therefore, you should not make a hasty decision to install another oil or gas heating system while it is still possible.”

Regarding additional financing measures, Wenzel said: “We also need to create incentives for, for example, landlords.” and enterprises.”

From the point of view of the leader of the FDP parliamentary group, Christian Dürr, the concept of the revenue orientation of the planned assistance for the installation of new heating systems is not well thought out. “I am concerned that such a support regime would be unfair,” Dürr told Mediengruppe Bayern: “We should not ban any technology for heating, we should only specify CO₂ neutrality requirements. Soon there may be gas heaters that can run on hydrogen.”

According to the head of the network agency Klaus Müller, the time for gas heating is running out. Heat pumps are the most important alternative. However, there are concerns that power grids may not be ready for this. Müller told the Rheinische Post that they wanted to prevent congestion problems in the local power grid. “And it’s very clear that consumers shouldn’t be turned off.” Only if the local network operators cannot otherwise prevent the threat to the stability of the network, they can temporarily reduce the capacity. According to Müller, heat pumps and charging stations should not be shut down completely.

Source: Frantfurter Allgemeine

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