KliWinBa: Climate-neutral heating in industrialised conurbations - systemic assessment of the contribution of innovative technologies to the heating transition in existing buildings

In order to achieve the goal of climate neutrality in the heating sector by 2045, existing efforts to reduce emissions must be greatly accelerated. In particular, it is necessary to focus on the building stock, as around 80% of the building stock of 2045 already exists today. Urban districts with buildings from the post-war period (or even older), in which fossil-fired heating systems have been used up to now, pose a particular challenge. Although various innovative technologies such as high-temperature heat pumps or combined CHP/power-to-heat storage systems have been developed in recent years, these are still rarely used in practice.

Against this background, the aim of the project is to systematically investigate the use of these options in cooperation with partners from the field. The aim is to create a reliable and practical basis for the prompt implementation of future investment decisions by the participating practice partners. The project also aims to identify which regulatory framework conditions need to be adapted in order to enable the increased use of these technologies.

As the aim is to enable and prepare for the efficient, large-scale use of these technologies, the focus is not on individual demonstration projects but on the evaluation of previous application experience and the well-founded assessment of application potential at the level of neighborhoods and districts. By involving municipal and private sector players (energy service providers, the housing industry, system manufacturers, network operators and municipal companies), the potentials and obstacles of the various technologies are to be evaluated in a practical manner and recommendations for action for the future climate-neutral heat supply in existing buildings are to be developed; this includes space heating and the provision of hot water, which is challenging due to the higher temperature levels required. In addition to high-temperature heat pumps and CHP-PtH storage concepts, geothermal resources are also being considered as technologies. In addition to assessing the usability and cost efficiency on site, overarching systemic aspects are also evaluated, in particular the achievable reduction in emissions, the achievable implementation speed and the effects on the (winter) peak residual load at the grid connection point and in the supplying distribution grids.

In addition to these contributions to the concrete implementation of the heating transition, the research project also aims to use practical implementation analyses to show how regulatory changes affect the implementation and economic viability of climate-neutral heating supply concepts. On the basis of such analyses, it is then also possible to derive recommendations for state actors at local, state and federal level as to which regulatory adjustments will help to accelerate the heating transition. Finally, the project focuses less on the exemplary implementation of the developed concepts at individual locations and more on the exchange between stakeholders and the dissemination of planning-supporting tools and work aids. To this end, these are not only disseminated within the participating companies, but regular workshops are held with technical experts at which the development status of the tools is presented and suggestions are gathered.

Funding: The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) as part of the funding announcement “Applied non-nuclear research funding in the 7th Energy Research Program - Innovations for the Energy Transition”.

Funding reference: 03EI1090A

Duration: 10.2024 – 09.2027