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Who can apply for Germany’s new renewable heating grants for homes?

According to Germany’s new heating law, many newly installed heating systems need to be powered primarily with renewable energy - but there are also hefty state subsidies on offer for eco-friendly heaters.

Published: 27 February 2024 12:06 CET
a heat pump is installed
An employee inspects a heat pump in front of a newly built residential building. Associations are calling for efforts to boost sales of heat pumps. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Bernd Weißbrod

Homeowners who want to switch to more climate-friendly heating systems have been able to submit applications to the KfW development bank since Tuesday morning.

According to reports in DPA, the online application portal was overloaded shortly after opening as a number of homeowners attempted to secure funding for a new heat pump or other renewable heating system. 

“In front of you in the waiting room are 529 people. The waiting room has been closed,” a notification on the website stated shortly before 8am. 

However, access to the portal later resumed as normal. 

Who is eligible to apply for a new heating system?

According to KfW, the application process for heating subsidies will be staggered, with applications opening to various groups over the course of 2024.

For now, applications are open to private individuals who own their own single-family homes. Most crucially, homeowners must live in their property to apply for funding at this stage. 

Applications will open to broader groups of homeowners in the coming months, but owning a home or apartment building is a requirement for this funding. Tenants don’t really have a say in the matter, beyond perhaps suggesting it to their landlords.

From May 2024, owners of existing apartment buildings with more than one residential unit, or Home Owners’ Associations (WEG) that collectively represent the owners of flats in an apartment block, will also be able to apply.

Flats in Cologne

Newly built apartments in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Rolf Vennenbernd

Finally, from August 2024 owners of buy-to-let homes and apartments will also be able to apply.

If you want to get started now, though, there’s no need to wait: if homeowners exchange their heating systems immediately, they can still apply for funding until November 30th, 2024. According to the latest government information, eligible projects must have started between December 29th, 2023 and August 31st, 2024.

Why is Germany subsidising personal home heating systems?

The new subsidies are provided as part of the heating law of the traffic light coalition, which came into effect from January 1st of this year. 

According to the new heating law, it is mandatory for new buildings in new development areas to have heating that is powered at least 65 percent by renewable energies. 

In many cases, this requires installing a heat pump. But compared with gas-powered heaters, installing a heat pump can be expensive. So these subsidies are aimed at helping homeowners afford energy saving heating systems.

READ ALSO: What homeowners in Germany need to know about the new heating bill

Some homeowners can apply for up to 70 percent of eligible costs. The basic subsidy covers 30 percent of installation costs for heating systems that are considered climate-friendly, such as heat pumps. 

Additionally, further bonuses can be paid to homeowners who live in their own home (rather than renting it out), and if their income falls below a certain salary limit. A contract with a specialised company is also required to be eligible for subsidies.

The contentious green heating law

There had been a bitter dispute over the heating law for months, with the Greens and environmental groups largely backing the law while FDP and more conservative parties rallied against it.

With the reform for more climate protection, the German government wanted to advance the heat transition in the building sector and protect consumers from price jumps for oil and gas if CO2 prices rise in the coming years.

According to Clean Energy Wire (CLEW), as of 2020, half of all German homes were heated by gas, making household heating a sector with huge potential for cutting CO2 emissions.

But opponents to the heating law claim it unfairly forces homeowners to make costly investments in eco-friendly sytems.

READ ALSO: ‘Heating hammer’ – Germany huffs and puffs over climate law

In October 2023, led by Bavaria’s state premier Markus Söder, thousands of people reportedly gathered in the Bavarian town of Erding to protest “heating ideology.”

The new heating law even made an appearance at the year’s Rose Monday parades – in Mainz Economy Minister Robert Habeck was seen flying away, metaphorically losing his grip on the ground with his heating law.

Rose Monday parade float

German Minister of Economics and Climate Protection Robert Habeck was seen being blown away by a heat pump during the Rose Monday carnival procession in Mainz, on February 12, 2024. Photo: by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP

In fact, debate over the heating law may have inadvertently sparked record sales of fossil fuel powered heating systems in the short term, since an earlier draft specified that broken heating systems would have to be exchanged for renewable alternatives. According to Der Spiegel, more oil and gas heating systems were sold in 2023 than any previous year.

As a general rule, functioning heaters can continue to be operated regardless of their energy use. Additionally, old heaters that break down can still be repaired.

READ ALSO: Can a green energy transition plan help revitalise the German economy?

Only heating systems installed after January 1st of this year are subject to the new requirements.

For more information on heating subsidies, or the application process see KfW’s website.

With reporting by dpa.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

Record heat deaths and floods: How Germany is being hit by climate change

Germany was further confronted with extreme weather conditions and their consequences last year. With this summer likely to break records again, a new report shows the impact climate change is having.

Published: 22 April 2024 11:28 CEST
Record heat deaths and floods: How Germany is being hit by climate change

In 2023, more days of extremely high temperatures were recorded than at any time since records began, the European climate change service Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) wrote in a joint report published on Monday. 

The records go back to 1940 and sometimes even further.

“2023 has been a complex and multifaceted year in terms of climate hazards in Europe,” said Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Director Carlo Buontempo. “We have witnessed widespread flooding, but also extreme forest fires with high temperatures and severe droughts.” 

These events have put a strain on natural ecosystems, and have also challenged agriculture, water management and public health.

According to the report, around 1.6 million people were affected by floods last year, and more than half a million people were affected by storms. The weather- and climate-related damage is estimated at well over 10 billion euros. “Unfortunately, these numbers are unlikely to decrease in the near future,” Buontempo said, referring to ongoing human-caused climate change.

Heat turns deadly, even in Germany

Averaged across Europe, 11 months of above-average warmth were recorded last year, with September being the warmest since records began in 1940. 

A record number of days with so-called extreme heat stress, i.e. perceived temperatures of over 46C, was also registered. 

As a result of higher temperatures, the number of heat-related deaths has risen by an average of 30 percent over the past 20 years.

According to the Robert Koch Institute, at least 3,100 deaths in Germany were linked to heat in the first nine months of 2023.

“In some cases, for example heat stroke, heat exposure leads directly to death, while in most cases it is the combination of heat exposure and pre-existing conditions that leads to death,” RKI explained in a statement, adding that women tend to be affected more than men due to higher proportion of women in older age groups.

In Germany temperatures above 30C are considered a heatwave. As weather patterns change due to human-caused climate change, heat waves have increased in number and length.

READ ALSO: How German cities are adapting to rising temperatures

Historically Germany hasn’t faced so many severe heatwaves each year, and central air conditioning is not commonly found in the country. In cities across the Bundesrepublik, heat plans are being drafted and refined to try and prepare for further extreme heat events in the near future.

Delivery van stuck in flood

A delivery van stranded in flood water during a storm surge near the fish market in Hamburg last winter. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Bodo Marks
 

Warming oceans and mountains and more rain

On average, the seas around Europe’s coasts were warmer than at any time since at least 1980. 

READ ALSO: Colder winters and refugees – How changing ocean currents could impact Germany

It was also much too warm on the glaciers in 2023. “After the record ice loss in 2022, it was another exceptional year of loss in the Alps,” Copernicus and WMO wrote. In these two years, the glaciers in the Alps lost around 10 percent of their volume.

Interestingly, the excess meltwater may be boosting hydroelectricity production in the short term. According to the report, conditions for the production of green electricity in 2023 were very favourable, with its share of the total electricity mix at 43 percent, the highest seen so far.

Overall, seven percent more rain fell last year than average. It was one of the wettest years on record, the report said. 

In one third of the river network in Europe, water volumes have been recorded that exceeded the flood threshold. There were severe floods in Italy and Greece, among other places, and parts of northern Germany were affected at the end of the year.

Hamburg and the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein were among regions hardest hit by floods in Germany last year. Northern sections of the Elbe river rose high enough to submerge Hamburg’s fish market several times among other places.

READ ALSO: Germany hit by floods as October heat turns into icy spell

2024 likely to continue breaking heat records

The recent report by Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization is in agreement with a UN report published last month, which noted that last year came at the end of “the warmest 10-year period on record” according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

“There is a high probability that 2024 will again break the record of 2023”, WMO climate monitoring chief Omar Baddour said, according to Science Alert.

Another year of record breaking high temperatures means Germany can likely expect more and longer heatwaves in the late spring, summer and early autumn seasons. Higher average temperatures are also correlated with an increase in extreme weather events like extreme storms and floods in parts of the country.

In drier parts of Europe it means an increase in droughts and wildfires.

With reporting by DPA.

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