Utilities consider the announced heating ban from 2024 to be unrealistic.
The financial risks are too high due to the rigid specifications.
Frankfurt – From 2024 there will be a ban on the installation of new oil and gas heating systems.
The proposal for the heating ban came from Environment Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) - he sees it as an opportunity to completely abolish fossil fuels in the long term.
Municipal utilities, however, consider the announced ban to be unworkable.
The heating ban stipulates that from 2024 only heating systems that are operated with at least 65 percent renewable energies will be allowed to be installed.
Oil and gas heating should then be replaced by heat pumps, solar systems, infrared heaters or wood and pellet stoves.
However, if the local suppliers offer environmentally friendly eco-gas such as hydrogen, it is still possible to install gas heaters.
By 2030 at the latest, the supply of eco-gas should be guaranteed.
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However, utilities would need more time to switch from conventional gas to green gas.
The planned regulations are "completely inconsistent with reality", criticizes the head of the Association of Municipal Entrepreneurs eV Ingbert Liebing compared to the
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They are “counterproductive and have the opposite effect.
For us, they are more of a brake pad.” According to Liebing, it takes two to three years to plan new gas networks and another year before the municipal suppliers can guarantee reliable production and delivery of eco-gas.
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The heating ban envisages being able to completely do without fossil fuels from 2045.
© Annette Riedl/dpa
According to Liebing, the announced obligation to pay compensation for suppliers is also “unacceptable”.
The regulation stipulates that the supplier must compensate those households with gas heating if the eco-gas is not available as announced.
"They mean that almost no supplier will continue to open the gas networks to alternatives because the financial risks are far too great," complains the head of the association.
He predicts that the municipal utilities will therefore be more reluctant when it comes to offering eco-gas.
In order to counteract this, there must be significantly "more flexibility" in the changeover.
The Association of German Engineers (VDI) is also in favor of this.
Instead of strict bans on use, a gradual introduction of climate-neutral heating solutions should be targeted.
The current speed of expansion of renewable energies is therefore not sufficient in either the electricity or heating sectors to achieve the political goals.
It is therefore necessary to create legal, regulatory and economic framework conditions in order to accelerate a sufficient expansion of the various renewable energies.
Criticism of the suppliers to the ban on heating: Gradual changeover due to higher CO2 tax
This could be achieved by making fossil energies more expensive - for example by increasing the EU-wide CO2 tax while at the same time increasing the quota for renewable energies for heat generation in the Building Energy Act.
"This would indirectly promote the replacement of fossil heat generators or the installation of solar systems in new buildings," says Jochen Theloke, Managing Director of the VDI Society for Energy and the Environment.
The German Sustainable Economy Association (BNW), on the other hand, criticizes greater flexibility when switching to renewable energies.
A strict ban on gas and oil heating from 2024 is urgently needed to reduce emissions in the building sector.
According to the association, the unclear formulations in the result paper regarding the fossil heating ban would probably mean that gas and oil heating systems would continue to be installed after 2024.
(tt/dpa)
List of rubrics: © Annette Riedl/dpa