Germany's municipalities make good progress on heat planning – industry

More than a third of Germany's municipalities are working on municipal heat planning to help phase out fossil fuel systems, with 13 percent already finished with their plans, reports news agency dpa.  

Large municipalities with more than 45,000 inhabitants are the most advanced, with 98 percent having already started or finished their heat planning, according to the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW).  

Municipal heat planning is a key tenet of Germany's aim to become climate-neutral by 2045. The federal government introduced a law in 2023 giving cities with over 100,000 inhabitants until mid-2026 and smaller towns until mid-2028 to come up with a plan for transitioning to climate-neutral heating, which to a large extent is supposed to happen through an expansion of district heating. Today, district heat is mostly produced from fossil fuels like gas and coal, but it provides a relatively easy way to switch hundreds of homes to renewable-based heating at the same time by converting one larger facility.  

BDEW chairwoman Kerstin Andreae called the progress "good news" but said that joined up regulations and ordinances as part of a "consistent heating package" were needed to ensure that the momentum continues.  

Late last year, German media found the country's 11 largest local utilities continued to connect new housing developments to the local gas grid rather than using renewable alternatives. Green lawmakers blamed long lead times for completing heat planning for taking the pressure off to act quickly. At the same time, the first municiaplities have also started to announce a phase-out of their gas grids. Emissions from heating buildings are directly responsible for around 15 percent of the country's entire CO2 output.