Renewable Energies Heat Act

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basic data
Title: Law for the promotion of renewable energies in the heating sector
Short title: Renewable Energies Heat Act
Abbreviation: EEWärmeG
Type: Federal law
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany
Legal matter: Commercial administrative law , environmental law
References : 754-21
Issued on: August 7, 2008
( BGBl. I p. 1658 )
Entry into force on: January 1, 2009
Last change by: Art. 261 Regulation of June 19, 2020
( Federal Law Gazette I p. 1328, 1358 )
Effective date of the
last change: 		June 27, 2020
(Art. 361 of June 19, 2020)
Expiry: November 1, 2020
Art. 10 G of August 8, 2020
( Federal Law Gazette I p. 1728, 1794 )
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The renewable energy heat law (EEWärmeG) is a German Federal law , in addition to the power generation concerned Renewable Energy Act (EEG) and the use of renewable energies in the range of the fuels regulating rate of biofuels law the expansion of renewable energy in heating and cooling to promote energy supply in buildings. It came into force on January 1, 2009. The law is part of the Integrated Energy and Climate Program (IEKP) passed by the federal government on December 5, 2007 and for the first time introduces a nationwide obligation to use renewable energies in the construction of new buildings (so-called usage obligation in accordance with Section 3 (1) EEWärmeG ). The law anticipated a later EU directive on renewable energies of April 23, 2009 , which, among other things, introduced an obligation to use renewable energies for heating and cooling, both for new and, under certain conditions, for old buildings by 31 December 2014 imposed on the member states (Art. 13 Para. 4). The EEWärmeG was passed against the votes of the FDP and with the Greens abstaining .

Reason and goal

Although half of the energy consumption in Germany comes from the generation of heat, their share of renewable energies is only around 10% (2014) and is largely limited to the use of wood. The EEWärmeG (Section 1) now sets the legal target of covering at least 14% of the heating and cooling energy requirements of buildings with renewable energies by 2020. In order to achieve this goal, the law establishes the general obligation to supply new buildings with a prescribed percentage of renewable energies. This affects around 150,000 newly constructed buildings every year. For old buildings, the law provides funding for appropriate retrofitting, which can affect around 600,000 modernized heating systems per year. A corresponding obligation to use the building, which was originally provided for in the drafts, also for old buildings, as soon as they are renovated to a not only insignificant extent, has been deleted again. However, since it was already established at this point in time that the EU directive on renewable energies issued on April 23, 2009 would contain a corresponding obligation, the intended sparing of the property owners should only be temporary. The EEWärmeG had a predecessor in the form of the Renewable Energies Heat Act in Baden-Württemberg , which came into force on January 1, 2008 and which continues to apply to old buildings (see below).

In addition, the German heating system is out of date. Not even a quarter of the roughly 18 million combustion systems in Germany are less than ten years old and therefore state-of-the-art. More than 70 percent of oil and gas heating systems are even older than 15 years. Around four fifths of all heating systems in existing homes are still based on combustion technologies. As a result, the heating market (space heating, hot water, process heat) has a correspondingly high proportion of energy-related CO 2 emissions with around 40 percent of Germany's energy consumption.

Use obligation

Owners of new buildings with a usable area of ​​more than 50 m² are obliged to cover their heating (or cooling) energy needs from renewable energies to a different extent depending on the type of energy used (usage obligation according to Section 3 (1) EEWärmeG). The entire energy requirement of a building is recorded, with the exception of certain buildings such as stables, temporary buildings, open halls, but also churches. Buildings that are part of an installation that are subject to emissions trading under the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Act are also excluded . The energy requirement must be calculated using the same regulations that are based on the Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV). Renewable energies within the meaning of the law include geothermal energy , environmental heat, solar radiation energy and biomass (Section 2, Paragraph 1). When using these energies, their share in the total consumption must be at least:

  • Solar radiation energy: 15% (for reasons of simplification, the area of ​​the installed solar collectors must be at least 4% of the heated usable area for single and two-family houses, and 3% for multi-family houses)
  • Biomass: 50% when using liquid or solid biomass (bio oil on the one hand or wood pellets, logs on the other hand) and 30% when using biogas
  • Geothermal and environmental heat: 50% (e.g. heat pumps).

Replacement measures

Instead of using the renewable energies mentioned, the obligation to use can also be fulfilled by the following alternative measures:

  • the utilization of technical waste heat, as with exhaust air and waste water flows, to 50% (§ 7 No. 1a);
  • By utilizing heat from combined heat and power plants to at least 50%, provided the plants are highly efficient, d. H. achieve a saving of at least 10% of the energy used compared to separate heat and power generation (Section 7 (1b));
  • by increasing the energy efficiency of buildings, for example through insulation measures, by more than 15% than in accordance with the applicable requirements of the EnEV (Section 7 No. 2);
  • through direct connection to heating networks which themselves draw at least half of the heat from CHP systems (Section 7 No. 3).

execution

The individual possible measures, including the substitute measures, can be combined, and several persons obliged to use the property (house owners / owner associations) can join forces to fulfill their obligations, so that the individual contribution does not matter in this respect (Section 6).

The homeowners have to prove the fulfillment of the usage obligation and the representatives of the responsible authorities are authorized to carry out spot checks on site, for which the basic right to inviolability of the apartment (Art. 13 GG) was expressly restricted (§ 11 Abs. 2). Responsibility is based on state law (Section 12), according to which the lower building supervisory authorities are charged with monitoring.

District heating networks

Another aim of the law is to promote the expansion of networks using renewable energies for local and district heating. For this purpose it is made clear that the municipalities are also authorized to impose a connection obligation to use heating networks for reasons of climate and resource protection (Section 16). In addition, the law provides for funding for the networks mentioned as part of the so-called market incentive program (Section 14 No. 4).

Regional regulations

In Baden-Württemberg , the law on the use of renewable thermal energy in Baden-Württemberg, which came into force on January 1, 2008, continues to apply with regard to the old stock (Section 3 (2) EEWärmeG). This amendment now provides that, from January 1, 2010, old buildings will have to cover ten percent of their heat energy requirements with renewable energies as soon as essential components of a central heating system are replaced. Replacing the boiler is an essential component. Alternatively, the overall energy efficiency of the building can also be increased.

Market incentive program

With the market incentive program for the use of renewable energies in the generation of heat, measures serving this purpose will be funded with up to EUR 500 million annually up to 2012 (§§ 13, 14). The market incentive program, which has been running since 2000, is thus given a legal basis for the first time. The funds are to be taken from the proceeds from the sale of emission allowances. In deviation from the principle of subsidy law, according to which measures to fulfill legal obligations (such as the obligation to use in this case) cannot be funded (Section 15 (1)), the law permits the promotion of certain measures which fulfill the obligation to use if they go beyond the usual standard (Section 15 (2)). This u. a. enables the promotion of measures for old buildings in Baden-Württemberg, although there is already an obligation to use it there. In the course of the general financial and economic crisis, the market incentive program was initially stopped in May 2010. After massive criticism from affected associations, the ban was lifted with a few cuts in July 2010. At the beginning of 2015, the market incentive program was amended and the funding conditions improved. The aim is to cover 14% of the heating and cooling energy demand with renewable energies by 2020 (as of early 2015: 9.9%).

Motifs

Cost savings : According to calculations by the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW), renewable heat leads to cost reductions for users. In 2009, owners of a wood heating system, solar thermal system or heat pump had to spend an average of 595 euros less on heating costs. According to a report by the Schleswig-Holstein state government on the development of energy prices from 1988 to 2012, heating oil prices rose by 280 percent and natural gas prices by 110 percent. The inhibition threshold for its use, however, is high initial investments. This is especially true against the background of rising prices for conventional energy sources.

According to ZDF Wiso , pellet heating combined with solar thermal energy can save by far the most money compared to other heating systems for over 20 years. A model calculation by the Renewable Energy Agency shows unanimously that the continued operation of an old oil heating system is more than twice as expensive as a new pellet heating system or a heat pump. Switching from old gas heating to renewable heating technologies is also cheaper.

Compared to a new oil or gas heating system with condensing technology, heat pumps, pellet heating systems and solar heating systems are more expensive to purchase and are therefore subsidized with public subsidies. Over the entire service life, however, the environmentally friendly heaters ultimately have an advantage, because experience has shown that they have lower consumption-related costs. Wood pellets cost 5.12 cents / kWh (02.2015). According to comparison portals, heat pump electricity is available from around 20.5 cents / kWh (02.2015). A heating system that uses a heat pump to turn one kilowatt hour of electricity into around 3.5 kilowatt hours of heat provides its heating energy for the equivalent of 5.9 cents / kWh. Oil and gas were significantly more expensive in October at 8.1 and 6.9 cents per kilowatt hour, respectively.

A study by the Institute for Economic Research (ifo) showed that the market incentive program ultimately brings more government revenue than it costs. By reducing the funding in 2010, the state is therefore only apparently saving expenses. According to ifo calculations, the tax authorities are losing around 150 million tax revenues due to the blocking of subsidies. In addition, social security contributions and labor market relief are similar. According to the expert opinion, the blocked funding amount of 115 million euros could have triggered private investments of 844 million euros. Tax revenue is generated at all stages of the value chain - in production, sales and installation of heating technology. Even with conservative assumptions, these exceed the subsidy expenditure: Even if only every second heating modernization was eliminated due to the subsidy freeze, the Ifo still expects a significant tax increase: “The market incentive program is obviously an example of the fact that government subsidies also have a positive effect from the point of view of households can by flowing back funds, ”says the ifo study.

Climate protection: A central goal of using renewable heat is climate protection and the reduction of CO 2 . Heating systems based on bioenergy, solar thermal energy or geothermal or environmental heat are clearly superior to their fossil competitors in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. If a homeowner swaps his outdated heating oil boiler for a wood pellet heater, for example, he can reduce average greenhouse gas emissions from 376 to 25 grams of CO 2 equivalent per kilowatt hour. And even with a modern gas boiler with condensing technology or with district heating supply (around 250 grams of CO 2 equivalent per kilowatt hour), a solar collector could produce part of the heat demand with only a tenth of the emissions. Due to this greenhouse gas balance of every single technology, renewables, with their share of ten percent in the heating market, saved around 40 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2012. This corresponds to around 5 percent of Germany's total annual CO 2 emissions. The statutory goal is to create an almost climate-neutral building stock by 2050 that hardly emits any carbon dioxide.

Adaptation to the EU directive of April 23, 2009

According to the aforementioned directive , the member states are obliged to introduce a minimum requirement to use renewable energies by December 31, 2014 for new buildings and those existing buildings that are undergoing significant renovation work. The guideline does not contain any information about the measure itself, as it generally places the obligation of the member states under the reservation of appropriateness (Art. 13 Para. 4). From this follows a basic obligation for Germany to also include the old stock in the scope of the EEWärmeG. In addition, the directive may justify a need to adapt some substitute measures, insofar as the use of other than renewable energies is permitted there.

criticism

The law does not differentiate between emission-free and emission-related renewable energies. Since more fine dust is already generated by heating buildings than by road traffic, critics fear that the law promoting wood burning for heating purposes will lead to an increase in harmful fine dust emissions . However, this effect is also due to insufficient measures to limit pollutants in the Small Firing Systems Ordinance and cannot only be attributed to the Renewable Energies Heat Act.

In 2012, the scope of application was expanded from initially only “heat” to “heat and cold”.

The use of cooling from renewable energy applies to EEWG Annex IV (s. Related links) only as the fulfillment of the obligation if the cold is made technically available either by direct cold extraction from the ground or from ground or surface water or by thermal cooling with heat from renewable energies.

The direct extraction of cold from groundwater or surface water is not possible everywhere for geological and legal reasons (see water protection area ) and usually requires approval from the responsible water authority .

The direct extraction of cold from the ground or from groundwater or surface water harbors risks of a general nature (see geothermal energy #General risks ) and economic risks (see geothermal energy #risks for the profitability of a geothermal project ).

The coolant temperature is limited to the groundwater or soil temperature.

The thermal generation of cold with heat from renewable energies is possible in absorption chillers and adsorption chillers .

For thermal cold generation , due to the unfavorable heat ratio (see absorption chiller # heat ratio ) of around 0.6 to 0.7 kW cooling capacity / kW heating capacity when heat is provided from a CHP or pellet boiler, significantly more heating capacity than can be generated. This means that for every 100 kW of cooling around 140 kW of heating power are required and around 240 kW of waste heat must be cooled down. Since the heat ratio drops sharply with higher recooling temperatures, AKM are usually recooled with wet cooling towers. The operation of wet cooling towers harbors health risks Legionella # Occurrence of Legionella . Thermal chillers had a very small market share in Germany until 2012 because of the high acquisition costs compared to KKM and the low number of cooling hours.

Another possibility of providing cold from renewable energies, for example by means of compression refrigeration machines (KKM) with electricity from renewable energies and the simultaneous possible use of natural refrigerants (e.g. carbon dioxide (R-744) ), is useful from an environmental perspective, but is in the EEWG not considered as a supply option (see Annex VII, Paragraph 3).

The non-consideration of the KKM with electricity from renewable energies in the EEWG also arouses criticism because KKM as heat pumps heat pumps # Electrically driven compression heat pumps according to EEWG are taken into account for the provision of heat in winter, but not for the provision of cooling (see also air conditioning # Chillers ) from renewable energy may be used in summer, even if electricity from renewable energies is used in cooling mode. The EEWG thus also requires owners of a compression chiller / heat pump for heating to purchase an additional thermal chiller for cooling. This can be for those affected, for example builders in water protection areas, u. U. lead to considerable additional costs.

There has been criticism of the EEWG in particular since it was expanded to include “heating and cooling”. It relates in particular to the very limited supply options with regard to the cold and the additional costs that this may result for the building owners. Another point of criticism is that electricity from renewable energies is not given sufficient consideration in the EEWG.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Directive 2009/28 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and amending and subsequently repealing Directives 2001/77 / EC and 2003/30 / EC retrieved on December 12, 2009 In: Official Journal of the EU. L140, p. 15 of June 5, 2009.
  2. ↑ Volker Oschmann: New law for renewable energies. In: NJW. 2009, p. 267.
  3. ↑ Guido Wustlich: The Renewable Energies Heat Act goal and practical effects. In: NVwZ. 2008, p. 1041ff.
  4. ↑ The CO 2 reduction potential in the heating market ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 563 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bdew.de
  5. ↑ Volker Oschmann: New law for renewable energies. In: NJW. 2009, p. 267.
  6. ↑ § 4 Abs. 2 BW EWärmeG, [ Archived copy ( memento of the original from December 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ]; Ministry of the Environment Baden-Württemberg, Renewable Heat Act, accessed September 12, 2009, archived copy ( memento of the original from December 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.um.baden-wuerttemberg.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.um.baden-wuerttemberg.de
  7. ↑ Federal Office for Economics and Export Control, Renewable Energies, accessed September 13, 2009, [1]
  8. ↑ Guido Wustlich: The Renewable Energies Heat Act goal and practical effects. In: NVwZ. 2008, p. 1047.
  9. ↑ baulinks.de
  10. ↑ utopia.de
  11. ↑ baulinks.de
  12. ^ BMWi: Energy advice and funding
  13. ↑ Report of the state government on the development of electricity prices: Fossil fuels as the greatest risk for rising energy prices, 2012 ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schleswig-holstein.de
  14. ↑ Video Wiso: Avoid expensive heating costs  in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on January 26, 2014.
  15. ↑ Fossil fuels are the number one cost driver, press release, November 12, 2013
  16. ↑ sonnewindwaerme.de
  17. ↑ Old heating systems worsen Germany's climate footprint ( memento of the original from August 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.unendet-viel-energie.de
  18. ↑ PM Agency for Renewable Energy, June 12, 2012  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.unendet-viel-energie.de  
  19. ↑ Wieland Lehnert, Jens Vollprecht: New impulses from Europe: The Renewable Energy Directive of the EU. In: Journal for Environmental Law. 2009, p. 314.
  20. ↑ EEA: "European Community emission inventory report 1990-2007"
  21. ↑ Robert Kunde (Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research): Fine dust emissions from biomass combustion in small systems ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 1021 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zae.uni-wuerzburg.de
  22. ↑ energieagentur.nrw.de Energy Agency NRW - refrigeration systems
  23. ↑ baunetzwissen.de Baunetz Wissen - building technology, refrigeration
  24. ↑ energie-lexikon.info www.energie-lexikon.de - chiller

literature

  • Wieland Lehnert, Jens Vollprecht: New impulses from Europe: The Renewable Energy Directive of the EU. In: Journal for Environmental Law. 6/2009, p. 307ff.
  • Volker Oschmann: New law for renewable energies. In: New legal weekly. 5/2009, p. 263ff.
  • Guido Wustlich: The Renewable Energies Heat Act target and practical effects. In: New journal for administrative law. 10/2008, p. 1041ff.
  • Thorsten Müller, Volker Oschmann, Guido Wustlich (eds.): EEWärmeG. Comment. 1st edition. Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-58503-6 .
  • Alexander Milkau, Approaches to the promotion of renewable energies in the heating market , 2009, Volume 2 of the publications on environmental energy law, ISBN 978-3-8329-4969-3 .

Web links