As of: March 25, 2024, 6:01 p.m
By: Amy Walker
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In a letter to the country's mayors, environmentalists and climate activists warn against heat planning with green hydrogen.
Berlin – Germany's municipalities have had to deal intensively with heat planning since the beginning of the year at the latest.
The law on municipal heat planning has been in force since January 1, 2024 and requires you to have drawn up a heat plan by 2026 (for large municipalities) or by 2028.
The communities should discuss the heating options for their respective region and create investment plans for their implementation.
For example, municipalities can then decide to expand or develop a district heating network.
It is always essential that the heating networks use renewable energy as a source or will use it in the future.
Warning letter to municipalities: No hydrogen in heating systems
The law takes a technology-open approach, meaning municipalities are basically free to decide which technology they use;
The only important thing is that from 2025 they will be powered by 65 percent renewable energy; this proportion should then gradually be increased to 100 percent by 2045.
The options for generating renewable heat are diverse: geothermal energy, waste heat, wastewater, biomethane, biomass, green hydrogen - all of these and more are recognized as solutions in the law.
But climate protection initiatives and environmental associations are vehemently opposed to one possibility: green hydrogen should not be used as a solution for heating.
More than 200 associations have therefore come together in a joint appeal to warn Germany's mayors about the gas lobby.
“Hydrogen is inefficient, is unlikely to be available and will therefore remain expensive in the medium and long term.
“Hydrogen in municipal heat planning therefore represents a cost trap for municipalities and their citizens. In addition, hydrogen in heat planning endangers national climate goals,” the environmentalists write in the letter, which is available to
Ippen.Media
.
It is sent to the administrations of all 10,753 municipalities in the country.
However, they also emphasize: “A hydrogen network to supply industry is not what is meant here.
In contrast to heating, green hydrogen can contribute to the decarbonization of high-temperature processes.”
Science agrees: hydrogen is not a heating solution
In fact, experts, including scientists, pretty much agree that green hydrogen is not a solution to the heat transition.
A year ago, Benjamin Pfluger from the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Energy summed it up on tagesschau.de: “The verdict of almost all scientific studies is unanimous: too inefficient, available too late and most likely far too expensive.”
When using hydrogen for heating, you use five times as much energy as electricity for a heat pump, according to numerous scientific analyses.
Hydrogen is a central element of the energy transition - but not for heating © Jens Büttner/dpa
Nevertheless, you still hear the idea again and again today: converting gas heating systems with hydrogen is an alternative.
And you can actually read some articles online that promise: In the future we will be able to heat with hydrogen, it won't be difficult.
The heating manufacturers Viessmann and Vaillant even want to soon sell so-called H2-ready gas heaters that can be converted to hydrogen.
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This is exactly why the environmental associations write in their letter: “While there is scientific consensus that hydrogen is unsuitable for heating buildings for the reasons mentioned, the gas lobby is promoting the widespread use of hydrogen in heat supply.
It is based on just four studies, all of which were commissioned or financed by the gas industry itself.” The gas industry is only concerned with securing its business model in the long term, it continues.
“The calculation: If municipalities rely on hydrogen, the gas industry benefits because, on the one hand, they can continue to sell natural gas for a very long time and, on the other hand, they potentially make high profits from expensive hydrogen.”
Hydrogen in heating systems is the “champagne of the energy transition”
Another concern for the gas industry is that the gas networks they installed at great expense could soon become obsolete.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs recently pointed out in a discussion paper that a large proportion of the country's gas pipelines would soon no longer be needed.
Reallocating precisely these lines for the transport of hydrogen is of course attractive for operators.
That's why consumer advocates like the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations warn: "Hydrogen is the champagne of the energy transition."
The use of hydrogen in radiators should be “reserved for special occasions”.
And energy economist Claudia Kemfert, who is quoted in the warning letter to municipalities, also echoes this idea: “Heating with hydrogen is like showering with champagne.”
Of course it works – but why should you do that?