Half of new heating systems sold in Germany are heat pumps

Heat pumps have become the best-selling heating technology in Germany, with almost half of all new heating systems sold in the country last year being heat pumps, according to figures from the German energy agency dena. “In 2025, more heat pumps were sold than gas boilers for the first time,” the agency said. 

Heat pump market share rose to 48 percent, from 27 percent in the previous year, with 299,000 units sold, while the share of gas boilers fell to 44 percent. “The new figures highlight how Germany can reduce its dependence on fluctuations in oil and gas prices,” dena head Corinna Enders said. In new buildings, heat pumps have been the best-selling heating technology for several years.

Cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the heating sector is one of the biggest hurdles on Germany’s path to climate neutrality, which the government aims to achieve by 2045. While heat pumps have become the norm for new buildings, progress has been slow in modernising the existing building stock. The buildings sector has continuously failed its emission reduction targets, with more than half of Germany’s existing homes still relying on fossil gas for heating.

Enders added that serial renovations – an industrialised high-speed approach to energy-saving building renovations – are the next efficiency technology on the verge of breakthrough.  

Germany’s heat pump industry association forecast in March that sales were set to increase by about ten percent this year to reach 330,000 units, and would remain similar over the coming years. Demand growth fell short of its potential because the debates surrounding Germany's plans for the future of clean heating had created uncertainty, the association said.

Last week, the economy ministry translated the government’s plans to shape the transition to climate-friendly heating into a new draft law, which would drop the existing mandatory renewable energy quota for new heating systems, and allow homeowners to continue installing oil and gas boilers. Climate activists have heavily criticised the plans, which “will significantly widen” the existing gap between Germany’s national climate targets and actual emissions, according to calculations by think tank Öko-Institut.