In most cases, the collectors were installed on roofs. There were only eight combined heat and power plants for district or local heating systems. They have a total collector area of 4.4 hectares, which accounts for only around six percent of the total installed collector area. The knot has not yet burst with the start of federal funding for efficient heating networks in September 2022. In 2021, however, the picture was even bleaker when only one solar thermal system went into operation nationwide (energate reported).
New boost in 2023
However, BSW and BDH expect an “increased order intake” in the current year for the construction of solar thermal power stations “on the megawatt scale”. The two industry associations put the current production costs for solar heat at just around 5 cents/kWh. This improves the economy compared to expensive natural gas. The roofs are also likely to be fuller in the current year, as suggested by requests for funding from the responsible federal office Bafa. There is talk of an increase of 75 percent compared to 2021, figures that are also supported by a current survey of property owners.
In the area of heat pumps, the surge in demand in the previous year was clearer: 236,000 systems or 53 percent were added in 2022, as the BDH recently announced together with the Federal Heat Pump Association. /mt
