“A hot decision”

Heat pumps as an alternative to fossil fuels for heating could be a viable option for northern German regions but less so in the country’s south, Harald Czycholl writes in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Northern German regions, like neighbouring Denmark, can use excess wind power capacities for heating purposes and replace gas and oil systems, Czycholl says. But given the low output of solar plants in southern Germany during winter and the relatively low number of wind turbines there, heat pumps currently would be “counterproductive” as electric heating elements would only put further strain on local grids, he writes. However, “there will be no way around using power as a primary energy vector” in the long run, Czycholl says.

See this short CLEW interview with BNE director Robert Busch for background.