2024-08-29 22:40:38
Sales of heat pumps have recently collapsed in Germany. The head of the Building and Energy Industry Association is nevertheless optimistic about the future.
Despite the weak figures for the installation of heat pumps, the German heating industry expects a reversal of the trend soon. “For 2025, we see the famous light at the end of the tunnel. We have attractive funding, the trade has capacity, the technical solutions are convincing,” said the managing director of the Building and Energy Association, Jens Wischmann, to the media of the Ippen Group.
Sales of heat pumps have recently collapsed, as the Federal Association of the German Heating Industry (BDH) announced at the end of July. 90,000 devices were sold in the first half of the year – a decrease of 54 percent compared to the same period last year. Last year was a record year for the sale of heat pumps. When asked, the BMWK cited pull-forward effects and higher interest rates as possible reasons for the drop in sales this year.
Wischmann, on the other hand, sees a tendency for the numbers to rise again in the future. “Current funding application figures show a slightly positive trend in funding for heat pumps. The numbers are increasing, albeit at a modest pace.” There is generally demand, but installation is taking longer than initially thought.
Wischmann also sees a driving force in the fact that Germany will join the European emissions trading system from 2027, which will make fossil energy more expensive in general. Wischmann does not believe that the regulations will change either in Germany or at the European Union level. “The CO2 price will come and the heating law will certainly not be repealed. Neither at the EU nor at the federal level.”
The new heating law generally stipulates that from 2024, every newly installed heating system must be powered by 65 percent renewable energy. However, the regulations initially only apply to new buildings in a new development area. Heating systems that are already functioning can continue to be operated.