Martyn Bridges, director for marketing and technical support of Worcester, Bosch Group, comments on Germany’s approach to reducing carbon emissions

Global concern for the environment has hit home over the past few years – especially as the 2010 deadline set in the Kyoto agreement looms and, although reductions in CO2 emissions have been made, the 20 per cent target is unlikely to be reached. Industrial emissions are being reduced through legislation but, with 70 per cent of a home’s carbon emissions being attributed to domestic heating and hot water, the logical place to start is with the homeowner.

Over the past few years, we have seen the emergence of more readily available and affordable home heating technologies which utilise renewable energy. In addition, advances in technology and engineering mean that heating technologies which require non-renewable input, such as gas and oil-fired boilers are a lot more energy efficient than previous, older models, thanks in part to the introduction of condensing boilers.

As such, governments are increasingly looking at implementing more concrete measures to ensure that they are on course to achieve the targets – none more so than in Germany. From 1 January 2009, when changes to an existing heating system/boiler are necessary, it will be required by law to install renewable energy heating systems such as solar panels, wood pellet stoves, energy efficient boilers and ground source heat pumps into all new build homes.

The Erneubare-Energien-Wärmegesetz (Renewable Energies Heating Law), states that new homeowners must use renewable energy sources to meet at least 14 per cent of the household’s energy consumption for heating and domestic hot water. Existing houses will have to be remodelled to incorporate renewable home heating technology from 2010.Their target will be for 10 per cent of their heating and hot water requirements to be met by renewable energy sources. Failure to comply will incur a fine of up to €500,000 (£357,142).

The German government is also allocating €350m (£250m) per year to go towards grants for homeowners to install renewable home heating technologies. The law is expected to be passed by parliament this year (2008) as part of a package of measures that aim to reduce the country’s carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2020, compared to the country’s 1990 emissions.

Most homeowners are expected to opt for solar panels but ground source heat pumps are an equally viable option – especially for new build homes. Ground source heat pumps work by drawing energy from the ground, through a series of collectors, which deliver the energy to the pump usually situated in the house. The pump then compresses the energy and converts it into heat ideal for radiators and under floor heating in particular.

It is estimated that updating energy performance in buildings could save €50bn (£35m) in heating costs up to 2020 in Germany alone. Here in the UK, it seems we will be playing a serious game of “catch up” to follow the German market, particularly with existing properties where we currently have no known policy to introduce legislative measures to enforce the reduction of carbon emissions – is it time we thought about it though?

Martyn Bridges, director for marketing and technical support of Worcester, Bosch Group

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