13 .06.2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
In new residential construction, the heat pump is now the first choice: the technology is used in most of the houses completed in 2022. Also otherwise there are clear trends.
As can be seen from figures from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the share of heat pumps as a primary heating source was 57 percent last year. In 2021, it was still 50.6 percent, in 2015 only 31.4 percent. They are now standard in single- and two-family homes in particular, where their share was more than 60 percent. Their use was much less common in multifamily buildings (35.8 percent), where 21.4 percent are heated with district heating and 34.0 percent with natural gas.
Also overall, the trend is toward more environmentally friendly heating: renewable energies are being used for heating in more and more new residential buildings in Germany. Three-quarters (74.7 percent) of residential buildings completed in 2022 will be heated entirely or partially with renewable energy. As Destatis further announced on June 12, this share increased by 4 percentage points compared to 2021 (70.7 percent). In 2015, it had still been at 61, percent. Of newly built single-family homes, 77.0 percent are heated wholly or partly with renewable energy sources, compared with 80.9 percent for two-family homes and 58.7 percent for homes with three or more apartments.
As the primary source of energy, i.e., used primarily for heating, renewable energy is used in more than half (61.4 percent) of the 103,525 residential buildings completed in 2022 (2015: 38.0 percent).
Renewable energy sources for heating include ground-source or air-source heat pumps (geothermal or environmental), as well as solar thermal, wood (for example, pellet heaters or fireplaces), biogas/biomethane, and other biomass. Conventional energy sources include oil, gas and electricity. District heating represents another energy source that is not counted as either renewable or conventional in the statistics.
Oil heating no longer plays a role in new buildings
Natural gas was used as the second most important primary energy source in 28.0 percent of new buildings in 2022. However, the share of gas heating as the primary energy source has been steadily decreasing in recent years. In 2021, it had still been 34.4 percent and in 2015, 51.5 percent. Primarily district heating was used in 8.0 percent of new residential buildings (2015: 7.8 percent). Oil-fired heating was used as primary heating in only 440 new residential buildings, which was 0.4 percent of new buildings (2015: 1,195 and 1.1 percent, respectively).
If an additional further (secondary) energy source was used in new residential buildings, this was preferably electricity (12.9 percent) and the renewable energy sources solar thermal (11.9 percent) and wood (11.3 percent).
The trend toward heating with renewable energy is also evident in the planning of more new residential buildings, with 83.1 percent of the approximately 110,700 residential buildings approved in 2022 to be heated in whole or in part with renewable energy. Renewable energy sources will be used as the primary energy source in a good three-quarters (75.7 percent) of the approved residential buildings. Most of these are also heat pumps: they are used as the primary heating system in 71.0 percent of the approved new buildings. Natural gas, the most common conventional energy source, plays an increasingly minor role in future planning, with a share of 13.9 percent.
Author: Günter Drewnitzky
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