Germany will seek to shake off its dependency on Russian gas with a new heating strategy focusing on district solutions and a mandate to make heat pumps mandatory as of 2024.

The coalition treaty agreed by the newish German government in December 2021 included a de facto ban on any new fossil fuel heating installations as of 2025.

That deadline is now being brought forward because of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has accelerated Germany’s plans to phase out gas.

Robert Habeck, the country’s vice-chancellor and minister for economy and climate, has already presented his “Easter package” aimed at revamping Germany’s electricity sector. It will now be followed by the heating-centric “summer package” expected at the end of May or early June.

Habeck’s right-hand man, state-secretary Patrick Graichen, said the package will be split in several parts. “In essence, it is probably three elements,” he told journalists.

While the finer details of the policy revamp are being worked out this month, the core parts are already clear.

Key measures include a ban on new fossil fuel heating systems and new rules on how cities should be heated, backed by “very supportive measures” to ensure that everyone who wants to install a heat pump can count on government support, Graichen said.

The newish German government already surprised observers in December when it announced its ambition to ban all new fossil fuel heating systems as early as January 2025.

With Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing fossil fuel price crisis, the government then decided to bring the date forward and make heat pumps – the most energy-efficient technology – the mandatory market standard as early as January 2024.

“We are creating the framework for property owners to replace their heating systems that are more than 20 years old and will optimise the gas boiler replacement programme in the Federal Programme for Efficient Buildings (BEG) for this purpose,” reads a March statement by the coalition’s troubleshooting committee.

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