Bonn citizens are asked about heat planning

28.01.2025

Source: E & M powernews

The city of Bonn has invited its citizens to submit online comments on municipal heating planning. The results will affect the supplier in particular.

Citizens have until February 7 to submit their opinions on future municipal heating planning (KWP) via an online form. According to the city of Bonn, it will incorporate the comments into the draft target scenarios for the KWP, as announced on the "bonn-macht-mit" platform and elsewhere.

The comments can refer to the drafts published in October 2024 on the mapping of suitable heat supply types, the 2045 and 2035 target scenarios and the current draft of the implementation strategy.

The city of Bonn was divided into 175 sub-areas for the KWPP) and for each sub-area it was examined whether and to what extent it is suitable for central heat supply via district or local heating or for decentralized supply via heat pumps. In Bonn, the municipal heating plan should be ready by May.

According to the city, it is certain that no hydrogen supply areas are currently planned. The reasons for this are the energy losses during hydrogen production, the expected high costs and the unclear availability of hydrogen. For the central supply, the city wants to roughly double the existing district heating network of the municipal distribution network operator Bonn-Netz GmbH and multiply the number of connections. In addition, local heating networks are to be created.

Favorable district heating prices should be convincing

The generation of district heating is therefore to be gradually converted to renewable energies. For example, large heat pumps could be built that use heat from the Rhine water or wastewater from sewage treatment plants. Geothermal energy is also to be used in Bonn, as are ground-mounted solar thermal systems. In addition, heat suppliers are to examine the extent to which waste heat generated in industry and commerce - for example in data centers - can also contribute to the supply.

SWB Energie und Wasser is also convinced that more customers will opt for district heating. "We are extremely cheap, especially for small-scale consumption," says Ulrich Dreymann, who implements the basic planning for SWB Energie und Wasser. 13.48 cents are currently charged for a kWh of district heating for a single-family home - the German average is 18.44 cents.

"We are on a very good path, because we are one of the cheapest providers of district heating in Germany and are also among the leaders in environmentally friendly generation with our share of combined heat and power generation, well ahead of the national average," says Sales Manager Robert Landen. The CHP share in Bonn is a high 87.37 percent, while the average is only 39 percent.

According to the city, heat pumps will probably be the best choice for decentralized solutions for many buildings. At the same time, the electricity grid is to be expanded and digitalized in order to be able to transport the additional electricity that heat pumps require.
The city of Bonn's implementation strategy currently contains around 80 individual measures that need to be addressed in the short, medium and long term in order to achieve the goal of a climate-neutral heat supply by 2035.

Author: Heidi Roider