Stuttgart is threatened with a heating shortage: heat pumps are falling by the wayside!

Stuttgart is threatened with a heating shortage: heat pumps are falling by the wayside!

In Stuttgart, the transition to climate-friendly heating systems is making slow progress. Despite the urgent need to make the city climate neutral by 2035, interest in the required heat pumps remains below expectations. According to a report by World In 2022, only one funding application was submitted for 319 new heat pumps, while only 363 applications were submitted in the first half of 2023. This is around 1,337 applications too few compared to the desired goals for the next few years.

In a time frame of less than a year, more precisely from 2026, new gas-only heating systems will no longer be allowed to be installed in the city. The upcoming Building Energy Act (GEG), which stipulates a green energy content of 65% for new heating systems, makes heat pumps the only realistic option to meet these requirements. Another obstacle is the renovation rate, which must be increased from the current 0.6% to 3.7% in order to achieve the required reduction in heating energy consumption by a third in the next ten years.

Laws and deadlines for heating systems

But how is the whole thing regulated? The new regulations of the GEG also bring with them important deadlines and various regulations. New heating systems using fossil fuels may be installed from the beginning of 2024, but until the heat planning comes into force. Especially in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, such as Stuttgart, the deadline is June 30, 2026. Smaller cities have until June 30, 2028. There will be mandatory consultations on economic risk assessment regarding rising CO2 prices in order to identify alternatives such as heat pumps.

These new regulations not only stipulate that from 2029 gas and oil heating systems must gradually use a proportion of renewable energies, but also that from mid-2026 for municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants, at least 65% of the heating energy must come from renewable sources. However, there are transition periods and hardship cases that allow new heating systems to be installed without this energy certificate under certain conditions, but this cannot be the final solution.

Bottleneck in heat pump applications

The goals set by the city are ambitious, and the requirements for the use of renewable energies also have an impact on the planning of new local heating networks. Aside from the need to connect 3,400 heat pumps every year, 50 kilometers of road are also expected to be expanded to accommodate new pipes by 2030. When it comes to efficiency, however, the “Stuttgart 21” project poses an additional challenge for drivers who are already burdened.

A spokesman for the CDU/CSU, Lars Rohwer, has recently invoked the need to reform the law. The deadlines of the Heat Planning Act should be retained, but the connection to the GEG should be cut. In other words, the moment is urgent - a change in thinking is necessary so that the people of Stuttgart can do justice not only to politics, but above all to the urgent climate goals.

The coming months will have to show whether the city and its citizens can take the necessary step towards renewable energies. Finally, one thing is clear: the conversion to a climate-neutral Stuttgart is not only desirable, but also overdue.