A kind of Big White Box is causing heated debates in Germany: heat pumps that are intended to replace gas and oil boilers.
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While gas remains the most common form of heating for German households, heat pumps are growing in popularity amid the transition to greener heating systems and against the backdrop of soaring energy prices from the invasion of Ukraine.
These devices, which emit less CO2 than fossil fuel boilers, are thus generating significant investment in Europe’s leading economy, which is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2045. Order books are filling and the phenomenon will continue to accelerate: a bill currently under consideration Parliament is gradually requiring individual heaters to run on at least 65% renewable energy.
The market for these pumps has experienced “significant growth like never before” in recent years, welcomes Jan Brockmann, CEO of the Bosch Home Comfort Group, to AFP. “In the long term, we believe that Germany could be the largest market in Europe.”
Photo ANDRE PAIN / AFP
Hi-Tech Puzzles
In order to meet the demand, the Bosch Home Comfort Group plant in Eibelshausen, a town in central Germany, started production of this future technology this year.
In the site’s production lines, whose industrial history goes back more than four centuries, piping and electronics for future heat pumps are introduced inside the plant. Equipment is tested before being placed in a large box.
The principle is comparable to that of air conditioners and refrigerators and extracts heat from the ground, the outside air or a water source.
For the ecologist Robert Habeck, Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister, this device is quite simply the “technology of the future”.
Photo ANDRE PAIN / AFP
In recent weeks, however, the minister’s promotion of these pumps has sparked an outcry. Doubts have been expressed about their actual contribution to combating global warming and criticism has been leveled at their cost, which many households consider too high.
Advocates of the reform emphasize the high level of government funding opportunities and the wide range of options for buyers, including the opportunity to purchase cheaper hybrid systems.
For them, these pumps are one of the few realistic options to reduce emissions from the building sector, which accounted for around 15% of Germany’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2022.
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A political compromise was reached on the timetable for the new rules to come into force, but after weeks of a government crisis, a judicial drama prevented the law from being passed in parliament, which was planned for this week.
The constitutional court, seized by the conservative opposition, considered the time given to MPs to consider the final version of the text was too short. Voting is postponed to September.
The professionals regret that this conflict leaves its mark and reduces the interest of potential customers. Mr. Brockmann describes the political dispute as “very regrettable”.
Photo ANDRE PAIN / AFP
Competition
Despite the turbulence, Bosch Home Comfort remains optimistic and intends to invest €1 billion in its European network by the end of the decade. In addition to Germany, the company has factories in Sweden and Portugal and is currently building one in Poland.
The market is crowded, however, with competition from other German manufacturers like Vaillant or Viessmann, who recently decided to sell their core business to an American group, a sign of the appetite heat pumps have whetted.
Although these devices are controversial, many remain convinced that they are essential in the fight against climate change.
Peter Klafka, whose company Klafka & Hinz manufactures computer systems for the energy sector, says the criticism of the cost and effort involved in installing these pumps is “overblown”.
“Some say you have to completely renovate your house, but that’s not true,” he told AFP. For him, “heat pumps are indispensable for the energy transition”.