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300 million euros available for heating networks

An additional 305 million euros for efficient heating networks - VKU calls for long-term financing and faster application processing

17.04.2025

Source: E& M powernews

The Federal Ministry of Finance has approved 305 million euros more for efficient heating networks as part of the provisional budget.

On April 17, the Association of Local Utilities (VKU) welcomed an "immediate grant" for the "Federal Funding for Efficient Heating Networks" (BEW). According to media reports, the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) has released EUR 305 million at the request of the Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWK) as part of the provisional budget management so that the program can be continued without interruption.

VKU Managing Director Ingbert Liebing called the BEW the central funding programme for the expansion and decarbonization of the grid-based heat supply. "The program is very good, has proven itself and must continue without interruption so that the heating transition can really take off," explained Liebing. He urged the CDU/CSU and SPD to implement the statutory anchoring and increased funding agreed in the coalition agreement.

Applications in the ten-digit euro range on hold

"The demand for funding is high and the program is underfunded," explained Liebing: There are already unapproved funding applications with a total volume of more than 1 billion euros. "This proves the high pressure to act and at the same time refutes an earlier argument that there is still enough money in the funding pot," said the representative of the municipal sector.

Now it is important to implement this quickly and easily so that applications can be processed and approved unbureaucratically and swiftly, continued Liebing. To this end, sufficient funds must already be made available in the 2025 federal budget, which has yet to be adopted. "We need to ramp up funding to 3.5 billion euros per year over the next few years," he said.

"We expect a further increase (in the number) of funding applications, as the municipalities are only just starting to expand district heating as part of municipal heating planning," said Liebing. The staff at the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (Bafa) must be further increased for this. The personnel resources at the Eschborn approval authority had recently become a bottleneck, concluded the VKU boss.

VKU demands for federal funding for efficient heating networks are available on the Internet.

Author: Susanne Harmsen