Energy transition
Small municipalities reserved in heat planning
Small municipalities still have three years to create municipal heat plans. While big cities have already started in many places, many smaller municipalities are hesitating. They make up the majority.
Smaller municipalities in particular are still cautious when creating local heat plans. Only 41 percent of the municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants started planning, said Robert Brückmann, head of the Heat turn in Halle (Saale). Only 2.4 percent of the smaller communities have already created a finished heat plan. These small communities made up the majority of the more than 10,700 municipalities in Germany. “You now have to start planning to be able to present a heat plan in 2028.”
Big cities must be ready by next year
Local heat planning is a central part of German climate policy. It obliges municipalities to create heat plans that determine which technologies and energy sources are suitable for the respective region. These plans are intended to create investment and planning security for building owners, companies and municipalities. Municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants have to present their heat plans by mid -2026, smaller municipalities have time until 2028.
Often there is a lack of money or staff
The reasons for the waiting attitude are numerous, the KWW said. In a local survey, around 70 percent of the small municipalities would have announced that due to a lack of financial and personnel resources, the heat planning did not yet start planning. Many municipalities also did not have a heating network. A decentralized supply therefore seems predictable for many that the expectations of heat planning are accordingly low, said Brückmann. Nevertheless, there is also a lot of potential in rural areas, as some examples also showed very small municipalities.
dpa
Source: Stern
