“Our study highlights the potential of large-scale heat pumps for supplying heat to buildings and urban districts,” emphasizes Fabian Ahrendts, author of the study at Fraunhofer IEG. “Pioneering projects show that large-scale heat pump technology is already a proven and ready-to-use technology.”
Daniela Trochowski, Managing Director of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, explains: “Our aim as a political foundation was to use the study we funded to give local authorities and homeowners, as well as environmental groups and tenant organizations, a better basis for their decision-making on the heating transition.”
Many heating networks with large heat pumps in the double-digit megawatt range can be found in northern European countries, where electricity is cheap compared to gas and the political framework is set appropriately, for example through municipal heating planning. But in Germany, too, the number of projects in which large heat pumps, heat storage, sustainable heat, waste heat and heating networks are considered together and can also serve as a model for Brandenburg and Saxony is increasing, the study emphasizes.
Participatory forms of heat pump and heating network operation, for example in the form of energy cooperatives, strengthen public acceptance and accelerate projects. Another beneficial aspect is the right operating temperature, which has a decisive influence on efficiency and therefore cost-effectiveness. In rural areas, the direct connection of solar and wind systems facilitates implementation.
At the political level, a predictable CO2 price is an instrument to promote the switch to a sustainable heat supply. A grid fee design that promotes the system-friendly use of large heat pumps in the electricity grid is also part of the municipal heating planning toolbox. The same applies to the legal regulation of data access and data procurement for heat source and potential registers and more official requirements such as financial incentives for citizen participation in projects.
The Fraunhofer IEG’s work has shown that large heat pumps are not only highly efficient, but are also suitable for operation by public utilities, municipal companies, housing cooperatives or village or citizen energy communities. They are not the one best solution, but they can make a significant contribution to making the heating transition affordable, efficient and environmentally friendly, especially in urban and densely populated areas (alongside decentralized heat pumps and unavoidable waste heat). In Scandinavia and France, large heat pumps are already a relevant part of the heating mix. Saxony and Brandenburg are doing pioneering work here so that they can finally arrive in Germany. The study draws the attention of legislators, local authorities and energy suppliers – also for social reasons – to the price and availability risks of green hydrogen for the building sector.
To the study
The study presents the role of large heat pumps in heating networks and describes pioneering projects in both urban and rural areas. Based on this, it describes the potential of the various heat sources for large heat pumps in Saxony and Brandenburg. It also looks at the role of community energy models for the implementation of the local heating transition. In concrete terms, it derives the following recommendations for action.
- Consider price signals as a control element: for example, the ratio of electricity to gas prices, predictable CO2 pricing and time-variable grid charges
- Streamline approval procedures: for example, for the use of surface water, wastewater and the construction of heat storage facilities
- Legal strengthening of the municipalities in the procurement of data for the municipal heating plans
- Introduction of a guarantee program for heating network solutions from municipal utilities and citizen energy companies
- Mandatory involvement of community energy companies in municipal heat planning
- Bonus payment for municipalities in which local heating cooperatives are established
Further information at: www.ieg.fraunhofer.de
The study
“RENEWABLE, EFFICIENT, REGIONAL – Potential of large heat pumps in Brandenburg and Saxony”
was compiled by Fraunhofer IEG on behalf of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and is available online.
PRESS CONTACT:
Kosta Schinarakis
Head of Science Communication and Press
Fraunhofer IEG
Research Institution for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Systems
Kockerellstr. 17 | 52062 Aachen | Germany
E Konstantinos.Schinarakis@ieg.fraunhofer.de
T 0049 (0) 170 887 888 6
Website: www.ieg.fraunhofer.de