BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – The German government is keen to spread confidence in the fundamental and climate-friendly transformation of the energy supply. “We can and will succeed in the energy turnaround,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said Tuesday at a meeting of the VKU municipal utilities association in Berlin. The future belongs to renewable energies – for cost reasons, for environmental reasons and for safety reasons.
The chancellor said the federal government was promoting energy-efficient renovation and the accelerated use of renewable energies in buildings. From 2024, 500,000 new heat pumps should be installed each year – this target was already known. The German Heat Pump Association expects 350,000 new heat pumps in Germany this year.
As a rule, however, heat pumps are still significantly more expensive than gas or oil boilers. Minister of economics Robert Habeck (Greens) promised households national support with the parting from oil and gas heaters. The heating issue should not become a social issue, Habeck said at the VKU conference.
The economics minister announced that the heating plans should be flanked by a “major social policy support measure” – as long as heat pumps are significantly more expensive than gas heating. Habeck spoke of public subsidies at least for households that could not otherwise afford to replace them.
Habeck defended the controversial plans for a ban on new gas and oil heating systems from 2024, when at least 65 percent of new heating systems are to be powered by renewable energies. The Economics and Construction Ministries are working on a corresponding bill. The SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed in the coalition agreement that every newly installed heating system should run on 65 percent renewable energy sources from 2025. A year ago, the coalition decided to bring this forward by one year.
Seventy-five percent of heating systems in Germany still run on natural gas and oil, Habeck said. “If we believe our Sunday speeches a little bit, a little bit, then it can’t stay that way,” the minister said, referring to climate targets. He added that this debate must be held now. In his view, there is no alternative but to make the decision this year on how the heating sector will also be decarbonized.
Scholz pointed to progress in the expansion of green electricity from wind and sun and to the planned construction of new gas-fired power plants, which can then be converted to hydrogen. The energy industry complains that there are currently too few incentives for the construction of new gas-fired power plants. Experts warn of a looming electricity shortfall.
According to the German government’s plans, 80 percent of electricity is to be produced from renewable energies by 2030, compared with just under half at present. The three remaining nuclear power plants are to be taken off the grid in mid-April. The coalition wants the coal phase-out to be brought forward by eight years to 2030 – this has already been agreed for the Rhenish coalfields, but not yet for the lignite fields in the east.
The chancellor went on to say that the federal government would promote so-called power purchase agreements between purchasers and producers of renewable energies. These are special, often long-term and direct power purchase agreements.
Habeck had confirmed on Monday at the end of the cabinet retreat in Meseberg that he would soon present a concept for an industrial electricity price. He said that offshore wind power in particular represented large amounts of energy that could then benefit companies via direct contracts.
Industrial unions see hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk in Germany because of the high electricity prices by international standards. Particularly in energy-intensive sectors such as the steel, chemical and building materials industries, there is a threat of job losses and site closures, explained the unions IG Metall, IGBCE and IG BAU. With a nationwide day of action on Thursday, they want to emphasize the demand for an industrial electricity price that is internationally competitive and guarantees long-term predictability./hoe/DP/mis
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