Municipalities: key stakeholders in a successful heating transition
The energy crisis brought about by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine painfully shows us how unsustainable Germany’s energy system is; the significantly increased energy prices are creating high financial burdens for consumers, businesses, municipalities and municipal utilities. To ensure the supply of energy, billions are being invested in terminals for fossil liquefied petroleum gas.
In light of this, the question of how we will heat our buildings in the future is – finally – receiving due notice in society. It is a matter of reconciling climate change mitigation, security of supply and affordability. In regard to climate change mitigation, the alarm bells have already been sounding for a long time. The declared goal of the German Federal Government is greenhouse gas neutral building stock by 2045. However, the interim goals have already been missed several times. It is all the more problematic because in a ground-breaking ruling the German Federal Constitutional Court underlined the great importance of climate change mitigation for intergenerational justice. The current energy crisis makes this long overdue task even more challenging.
Approximately one third of the final energy consumption in Germany is used to heat buildings and to provide hot water. Today, the heating supply is largely based on fossil fuels. This year, gas-based heating systems again ranked among the highest sales volumes. Therefore the heating transition is imperative. The heat demand must be significantly reduced by increasing buildings’ energy efficiency and the remaining heat demand must be fully covered by renewable energies and unavoidable heat loss.
Currently, the statutory provisions, support programmes and financial frameworks in the heating sector are changing at an unprecedented rate. In doing so, the short-term – sometimes counter-productive – need for action to tackle the crisis overlaps with the long-term transformation need to reform the heating supply. For example, the introduction of a 65 percent minimum share of renewable energies when installing a new heating system from 2024 is an important step towards a greenhouse gas neutral building stock.
Currently, the statutory provisions, support programmes and financial frameworks in the heating sector are changing at an unprecedented rate. In doing so, the short-term – sometimes counter-productive – need for action to tackle the crisis overlaps with the long-term transformation need to reform the heating supply. For example, the introduction of a 65 percent minimum share of renewable energies when installing a new heating system from 2024 is an important step towards a greenhouse gas neutral building stock.
Therefore, what is the role of municipalities when it is primarily the energy providers that must implement the investments for the decarbonisation of their heating networks and the energy-efficient renovation lies in the hands of housing industry and private owners? In light of the multitude of relevant stakeholders, an institution is needed that will take on a coordinating function. In terms of an integrated urban development, the municipalities are predestined to contemplate housing and energy provision in an integrated manner for the common good. They already have at their disposal a broad range of instruments for urban and specialist planning. Everywhere where the municipalities have set themselves ambitious climate change goals, they are also ascribed a driving role for the heating transition. For example, that could mean keeping track of the municipal climate change goals in their own municipal utilities and working together to map out a path for greenhouse gas neutral heating supply. For public buildings, the municipalities can also implement their own ambitious investment measures.
However, in reality many municipalities do not have the necessary structural, financial and human resources in order to take on such a role. Depending on the size of the administration, experience in municipal energy policy or the existence of their own municipal utility, the starting point for each municipality is different. If the municipalities are to play a central role in the heating transition, as envisioned by the German Federal Government and the individual states, then structural funding that is adequate for the task is a basic requirement.
Municipal heating planning is a strategic instrument currently gaining in importance; it provides orientation for future planning and investment decisions, and should help avoid bad investments from an economic point of view. It allows the municipalities to work with energy providers and other key stakeholders to develop a desired economic scenario for a greenhouse gas neutral heating supply, which is subject to the systematic examination and exploitation of all potential for the whole municipal area. It includes the cartographic representation of areas, which due to their high density are suitable to be supplied via heating networks and as such also suitable for decentralised supply technologies (primarily heat pumps). Such a coordinating instrument is particularly important for the heating transition because high capital investment in infrastructures and buildings that binds capital in the long term is necessary. Currently, there is also an additional aspect: many house and flat owners are rethinking their heating supply in light of the rapidly increasing energy prices. Therefore, planning guidance is more important than ever in order to avoid a patchwork of individual solutions.
At the moment, a consultation process of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) for the nationwide introduction of municipal heating planning in all municipalities with over a specified number of residents (e.g., 20,000) is ongoing. In some federal states, such an obligation already exists. Other cities, such as Rostock, have also voluntarily produced a heating plan and are already in the process of implementing it.
Municipal heating planning does not end once the plan has been drawn up, it is a permanent task. It is still to be decided how the implementation will best succeed. The less formally the instrument is designed, the more important it is that energy and urban planning connect. Regulatory options can be found in the form of, e.g., development plans and urban-development agreements. Also the consideration of the land required for renewable energies (e.g., open space solar thermal energy) or for heat storage is becoming increasingly relevant on the level of land use planning. In regard to the implementation of the heating plan, energy district development concepts are an important specification step for individual sub areas. The strategic support for the heating network expansion is also a new task for municipalities. For example, the city of Hanover recently decided on a district heating statute to accelerate the expansion of district heating. If heating networks are to be expanded, then the question about the future of gas distribution networks must be asked because running both networks at the same time is usually uneconomical. In this regard, new fields of activity in an integrated infrastructure development on a municipal level are becoming apparent.
No matter whether there is an obligation for heating planning or not, municipalities should immediately address the task of municipal heating planning. For the current situation shows that a sustainable heating supply constitutes part of the provision of public utilities and services. The conditions have never been so favourable. In the framework of the German Climate Initiative, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) is assisting the drafting of heating plans by offering a basic funding rate of up to 90 percent until the end of 2023, going up to 100 percent for financially weak municipalities.
Difu-Magazin Berichte 4/2022