Germans could cut gas use by 100 TWh with heat pumps, solar, less heating – E.ON
Clean Energy Wire
A large-scale switch to heat pumps, solar energy, and better demand-side management in the heating sector could save Germany up to 100 terawatt hours (TWh) of gas per year, energy company E.ON has said. Individual households therefore could make a significant contribution to Europe-wide efforts to reduce dependence on Russian energy imports, the company said. “If ten percent of the homes in Germany are equipped with solar PV installations, 20 percent of gas boilers are replaced by heat pumps, and the average temperature in all households is reduced by one degree Celsius on average, this would lead to natural gas savings of 103 TWh per year," E.ON Energy CEO Filip Thon said. This would equal about 30 percent of the total amount of gas Germany currently imports from Russia, he added. Thon said that a “smart mix” of immediate measures and long-term decisions has a huge potential for shifting the country’s energy demand away from Russian gas, “even though this undoubtedly will take a lot of effort over an extended period of time.”
Investments in heat pumps and solar energy in private households increased sharply already before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, but the ensuing energy crisis and strategic shift away from Russian fossil fuels only exacerbated this trend.
