In Germany, which is looking towards a future without fossil fuels, a kind of big white box is provoking a heated debate: heat pumps, which are supposed to replace gas and oil-fired boilers.
Growing demand for heat pumps boosts industry in Germany.
While gas remains the most common means of heating German homes, heat pumps have gained in popularity, in the midst of the transition to more environmentally-friendly heating and against a backdrop of soaring energy prices caused by the invasion of Ukraine. These appliances, which emit less CO2 than fossil-fired boilers, are generating considerable investment in Europe’s leading economy, which is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2045.
Order books are filling up, and the phenomenon is set to accelerate even further: a bill currently before parliament will gradually require individual heating systems to be powered by at least 65% renewable energy. The market for these pumps has already seen “significant growth in recent years, like never before”, Jan Brockmann, CEO of the Bosch Home Comfort Group, told AFP.
“In the long term, we believe that Germany could be the largest market in Europe”. – High-tech puzzles – To meet demand, the Bosch Home Comfort Group plant in the central German town of Eibelshausen began manufacturing this future-oriented technology this year. On the site’s production lines, whose industrial history goes back more than four centuries, the piping and electronics of future heat pumps are inserted into the bowels of the system.
The fight for new heat pump regulations in Germany
The equipment is tested before being placed in a large crate. The principle is similar to that of air conditioners and refrigerators, extracting heat from the ground, the outside air or a water source. For ecologist Robert Habeck, Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Economic Affairs, this device is quite simply the “technology of the future”.
In recent weeks, however, the Minister’s promotion of these pumps has sparked an outcry, with doubts expressed about their real contribution to the fight against global warming, and criticism levelled at their cost, deemed too high for many households. Supporters of the reform, on the other hand, point to the substantial government subsidies on offer and the many options available to buyers, including the possibility of upgrading to less expensive hybrid systems.
They see these pumps as one of the few realistic options for reducing emissions from the building sector, which accounted for around 15% of Germany’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2022. While a political compromise had been reached on the timetable for the new rules to come into force, after weeks of governmental crisis, a judicial setback has prevented the law from being passed in parliament as planned this week.
Political wrangling in Germany delays the adoption of heat pumps.
The Constitutional Court, seized by the conservative opposition, ruled that the time reserved for MPs to examine the final version of the text was too short. The vote is postponed until September. This conflict leaves its mark and diminishes the interest of potential customers, deplore the professionals. Mr. Brockmann describes the political quarrel as “very regrettable”. – Competition – Despite the turmoil, Bosch Home Comfort remains optimistic and plans to invest a billion euros in its European network by the end of the decade.
In addition to Germany, the company has plants in Sweden and Portugal, and is currently building one in Poland. However, the market is crowded, with competition from other German manufacturers such as Vaillant and Viessmann, which recently decided to sell its core business to an American group, a sign of the appetite for heat pumps.
While controversy rages around these devices, many remain convinced that they are essential to the fight against climate change. Peter Klafka, whose company, Klafka & Hinz, produces computer systems used in the energy sector, considers criticism of the cost and effort involved in installing these pumps to be “exaggerated”. “Some people say you have to completely renovate your house, but that’s not true,” he assures AFP. For him, “heat pumps are essential to the energy transition”.
