04/13/2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
The amendment to the Building Energy Act is available to the associations for comment. They see light and shadow in it and make suggestions for improvement for renewable heat sources.
In its statement on the draft bill of the Building Energy Act (GEG), the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE) praises "the will of the Ministry of Economics and Construction to free the heat transition from the standstill." BEE president Simone Peter calls the plans nevertheless not round: "To the genuine obligation for the use of 65 percent renewable energies in the heat supply neither the permission of 'hydrogen-ready' heatings nor the exclusion of individual renewable technologies fit".
Also the Federal association Kraft-Wärme-Kopplung (BKWK) cautions that Kraft-Wärme-Kopplungssysteme with renewable energies as option must be supplemented. "The BKWK calls for equal treatment of the useful heat of CHP in terms of RE heat with the use of boilers, as it is the most efficient use of fuels and combines the electricity and heat transition," said BKWK President Claus-Heinrich Stahl.
Match subsidy programs well
A designation of CHP systems with the corresponding transformation paths for 2030 and 2045 for renewable heat would provide clarity on the user side, the association suggested. CHP could flexibly balance positive residual loads at the distribution grid level on demand by the power grid operators. This would serve in particular also the supply security for neighbouring real estates for the enterprise of electrical heat pumps and loading points for the electric mobility.
In particular in the heating period between October and March, in which Photovoltaik can contribute naturally only conditionally to the security of the electricity supply and air water heat pumps their most inefficient performance figures register, can develop decentralized KWK plants their net servingness and secure additionally with their useful heat extraction the heat supply in buildings, building nets and heat nets highly efficiently. The other energy policy measures of the federal government such as municipal heat planning, power plant strategy and biomass strategy should be coordinated with each other and made consistent, according to the BKWK.
Include all renewable technologies
In itself, the implementation of the 65 percent obligation to use renewable heat is a milestone that could give the heat turnaround the decisive push, it said. "Behind it, the Federal Cabinet must not fall behind," warned BEE President Peter. "To ensure that millions of fossil oil and gas-fired boilers are not still in the stock in 2045, the reform must be accompanied by a gradual tightening of the replacement obligation for 30-year-old heating systems," she warned.
Instead of including solutions that are not yet practical, such as hydrogen boilers, it would be better to allow all heating solutions that are already renewable today. The building sector's needs are as diverse as renewable solutions, she said: Heat pumps, renewable district heating, building networks, biomethane, biomass, solar thermal and geothermal. "The GEG must recognize and allow all of them as equal," Peter demanded.
Socially shaping the heat transition
It is also absolutely incomprehensible that biomass heating and some other technologies are excluded in new construction. The exclusion of individual renewable heat technologies will lead to inefficient solutions and higher costs, Peter fears. In order not to jeopardize the acceptance of the measures, social imbalances in the funding should be avoided.
"The switch from fossil to renewable heating must be financially possible for everyone," the BEE president said. "Subsidies should be linked to household income and at the same time there should be a special focus on rental housing stock," Peter suggested. Lending for building owners must also be accessible to all, he added.
Author: Susanne Harmsen
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