Source: Energy & Management Powernews, February 21, 2022
On behalf of the Climate Neutrality Foundation, Prognos AG has compared decentralized heating with heat pumps or hydrogen in the gas network. Thereby the heat pump won.
To the current discussion about the reaching of the climatic protection goals for the building sector the donation climatic neutrality contributes. It had Prognos AG analyze whether it would be more effective to heat in the future with renewable electricity and heat pumps or green hydrogen. In any case, the prerequisite is an increase in the efficiency of the buildings through energetic insulation, the study says. Where possible, heat networks should be expanded.
For buildings that are not connected to heat networks, existing fossil-fueled heating systems would have to be replaced. Additional electricity from renewable sources would be needed for both heat pumps and the generation of climate-friendly hydrogen for gas heating systems.
Focus on higher electricity demand
When weighing the advantages and disadvantages of the two strategies, the study focuses on two questions: Does a significantly higher electricity demand in a climate-neutral electricity system also lead to a higher demand for controllable power plant capacity as backup capacity? How high does the electricity demand increase if hydrogen is not only produced as a backup during dark periods, but is also used as a heating gas?
The analysis by Prognos AG shows that an increasing share of heat pumps significantly increases electricity consumption, but that this demand can react flexibly. Heat pumps could compensate for future fluctuations in generation in an electricity system based primarily on fluctuating feed-in of photovoltaic and wind energy. As a result, in a climate-neutral electricity system in 2045, a significantly higher electricity consumption of about 70% compared to 2022 and a 300% higher generation peak would be accompanied by a much smaller increase in the maximum residual load of 20%.
