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Municipalities share their heat planning experiences

Close to 1,000 municipalities have taken part in a recent survey about municipal heat planning: a key finding is that cooperation from an early stage onwards facilitates implementation. Financing and a lack of resources and of knowledge are still presenting challenges.

Temperatures fall, the need for heating goes up By 2030, 30% of our heating energy is to come from renewable energy or unavoidable waste heat. The objective is to render the heat supply completely greenhouse gas neutral by 2045, using network-based heat. This means replacing fossil fuels in heat generation with renewables or with unavoidable waste heat. 

The transition in heat supply is organised mainly at municipal level. The Heat Planning Act requires cities and municipalities to draw up Heat Plans, which explore different options for ensuring the heat supply. Municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants must present this plan by mid-2026, smaller municipalities by mid-2028.

^{Support from the Centre of Excellence for Municipal Heat Transition (KWW)} 

Municipalities can rely on support with their heat planning – mainly support provided by dena’s Centre of Excellence for Municipal Heat Transition (KWW) in Halle (Saale). Irrespective of the progress that has already been made, the KWW can provide information material covering procedures, technologies and the legal framework, offer practical insights and access to networks, events, online tools and the most recent information.

The 2025 survey of municipalities published by the KWW in mid-November shows that significant progress has been made: compared to the preceding year, the share of municipalities in the implementation phase has increased by 20%, meaning that more practical insights are available.

Municipalities with expertise in the area say that the key to success lies in selecting suitable service providers early on in the process, working with local stakeholders, engaging in targeted PR work and beginning to collect data and assign responsibilities in the administration at an early stage. A total of 967 cities, municipalities and rural districts participated in the KWW survey, which was the third of its kind.

^{Preparation is half the heat planning}

Robert Brückmann, the man leading the KWW, highlights: “It is at the beginning of the heat planning process that the course is set and that you will encounter the most difficulties, be it cooperation with authorities and companies, access to consumption and demand data or the issue of having sufficient human resources. The survey confirms a finding we have often seen before: those who enter the process well-prepared facilitate their entire municipal heat planning.”

According to the survey, it takes municipalities an average of 18 months to complete their heat planning. Larger municipalities need 19.7 months on average, some three months longer than smaller municipalities, for which the average is 16.7 months. The most time-consuming phase is that of stocktaking and analysing the potential (5 months on average). The costs have remained stable compared to the preceding year and stand at an average of €3.79 per inhabitant, always depending on the size and starting point of the municipality.

^{Municipalities: a lack of human and financial resources is the most important obstacle}

Just like in the preceding years, the municipalities cite a lack of human and financial resources as their biggest obstacle. Other issues include a lack of legal certainty, e.g. the interactions between the Buildings Energy Act and the Heat Planning Act, or legislative gaps in Länder law. Other key challenges include access to data for the stocktaking exercise and getting the public and experts on board. There is a tendency among smaller municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants to aim for greater efficiency by forming associations of municipalities for the purpose of heat planning or leaving this task to their rural district administrations.

The latest survey was the first to also include estimates around the target scenarios of the heat plans. Whether or not these can be achieved will often only be known after implementation. At this point, 77% of the municipalities that have a heat plan are already implementing specific measures, including energy-efficient retrofitting, efficiency improvements for municipal buildings, and feasibility studies.

However, almost one in five of the municipalities that have completed their heat planning rate their expertise on heat planning as “low”. For this reason, says Robert Brückmann, it is particularly important to build knowledge, “especially to enable [municipalities] to take key decisions themselves during the process.”