German homeowners face further pain over the country’s controversial heat-pump programme.
Under the economy minister, Green Party member Robert Habeck, the German Government aims to eliminate all oil and gas-based heating systems in the country and replace them with electric heat pumps. Adding to homeowners’ misery, those already installed will have to be replaced.
The plan has caused outrage, with Jörg Dittrich, President of the Central Association of German Crafts, accusing the federal government of “governing outside the reality” of the situation, targeting Habeck in particular.
“People have to be able to afford it, otherwise we will lose society’s support for the energy transition,” he told Die Welt. “Tenants who cannot afford rent and homeowners who have to sell properties have little understanding of this policy.”
The move to ditch carbon-based fuels for heating places a huge cost on German homeowners who will have to pay an estimated €13,000 per installation. Meanwhile, the heat-pump firms are unable to meet the new demand, with people having to wait around nine months for a new installation. In addition, many industry observers in Germany say the mass installation programme threatens to overburden the national electricity grid.
The reason already installed pumps will have to be replaced is due to their use of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) as refrigerants. Approximately 80 per cent of heat pumps currently in use rely on these F-gases, which are considered detrimental to the climate.
The European Union, with Germany’s support, is working on a regulation that will ban all F-gases by 2030. As it is not possible to simply use different gases in existing heat pumps, they will have to be completely replaced.
What had originally been regarded as a minor issue, heat pumps are now causing a major uproar in German politics.
Dittrich pointed out that possible mismanagement could scupper Germany’s entire green transition programme.
Germany is currently run by a shaky three-party coalition, known as the “traffic light” coalition. It consists of the centre-Left Social Democrat Party (SPD), the Liberal Free Democrat Party (FDP), and the Green Party. However, the pro-industry FDP frequently butts heads with their Green coalition partners, whom it accuses of sabotaging German industry.
In March, Habeck’s heat-pump plans, among other green-transition proposals, nearly broke the coalition, with the entire collapse of government only being avoided after hours of desperate late-night negotiations.
