According to the Federal Association of the German Heating Industry (BDH) and IG Metall, the heating market and its employees play a decisive role in achieving the climate targets.
In a joint future memorandum, the two organizations call on the new federal government, as stated in the coalition agreement, to create suitable framework conditions for the implementation of the heating transition.
Heating system inventory
“The heating industry has around 74,000 employees, a good half of them in Germany. This industry can make a decisive contribution to the success of the energy transition. However, this will only be possible if core competencies and employment in development and production in Germany are secured and further developed,” said Wolfgang Lemb, executive board member of IG Metall, at a joint meeting of BDH and IG Metall with works councils and company representatives on Wednesday in Berlin.
The heating industry has around 74,000 employees, a good half of them in Germany"
BDH and IG Metall made it clear that around 40 percent of German final energy consumption is accounted for by the building sector, a large part of which is required for heating and cooling buildings. At the same time, the German heating system inventory is dramatically out of date, around 70 percent of the systems are not state-of-the-art. Only around 18 percent of the systems use renewable energies.
Market incentive program
In order to leverage the potential in the heating market, BDH and IG Metall are calling for a long-term and reliable strategy for restructuring the heating market. This must be open to technology and consistently based on CO2- be reduction-oriented.
Funding programs such as the market incentive program of the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control and funding through the Reconstruction Loan Corporation are to be retained but greatly simplified. The Building Energy Act, the amalgamation of the Energy Saving Ordinance and the Renewable Energy Heat Act, must be implemented as quickly as possible and financially adequately funded.
Higher energy efficiency
BDH and IG Metall see a sensible way of using tax incentives in the proposal made by the Federation of German Industry
According to the BDH and IG Metall, the model of tax subsidies for energetic modernization is particularly suitable for resolving the modernization backlog and reducing CO2 in the short term to reduce.
The two organizations support the right to choose between a grant and a tax reduction agreed in the coalition agreement, which can contribute to social equilibrium. BDH and IG Metall see a sensible way of using tax incentives in the proposal made by the Federation of German Industry, the German Trade Union Federation, and the German Energy Agency to be able to deduct 30 percent of the investment in higher energy efficiency from the tax liability over a period of three years.
Regenerative power generation
The program should run for 10 years. “The technical solutions for implementing the heating transition are all available. It is important that the new federal government now sets the right political course."
Furthermore, BDH and IG Metall are calling for the resolute expansion of regenerative power generation. As part of the sector coupling, electricity can then be increasingly used in the heating market. Due to the volatility of electricity from renewable energies, storage concepts need to be further developed for central solutions, especially on the basis of power-to-gas and power-to-liquid.
