There are only eight lines in a 30-page document, but they have what it takes to get excited: According to the plans of the federal government, solar modules are to be compulsory in future on all new buildings.
Anyone who extensively renovates their roof should also have to install a photovoltaic system.
This is what it says in the draft for the “immediate climate protection program 2022”, which is currently being discussed between the ministries.
It also stipulates that new houses must save more energy.
The so-called Efficiency House 55 would therefore be raised to the new standard for all buildings from 2023.
Standard 40 will then apply two years later.
A new building should then only consume 40 percent of the primary energy of a reference house.
Bernd Freytag
Business correspondent Rhein-Neckar-Saar based in Mainz.
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Julia Löhr
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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Corona is no longer the most important issue in politics; instead, climate protection is once again pressing the top priority. The grand coalition agreed in mid-May that Germany should become climate-neutral as early as 2045 and not until 2050. But that goal cannot be achieved simply by writing it into law. People have to change their behavior. Politicians want to achieve this both through regulatory law - such as the solar system requirement that is now being discussed - and through the targeted increase in the price of fossil fuels such as oil and gas. But there is resistance from those affected.
Even if the federal government emphasizes that the details of the immediate climate protection program are by no means already a done deal - the draft is sufficient to put the owners' association Haus & Grund in a mood of alarm.
"A general solar requirement for all residential buildings is insane," says President Kai Warnecke.
A solar roof is not technically sensible on every roof.
The association is also missing measures so that landlords can sell the electricity they produce to their tenants without red tape.
The raising of the new building standard has also met with criticism.
"It will make building and thus housing costs unnecessarily much more expensive."
And what happens to roofs in the shade?
The consortium for contemporary building, a state-recognized institution for building research, estimates that the Efficiency House 40 standard increases the construction costs per square meter of living space by around 260 euros compared to the 2016 Energy Saving Ordinance. Measured against the fact that households in Germany with three or more people live in an average of 122 square meters, a single-family house of this size would be more expensive by 31,720 euros. The relevant portals on the Internet put the costs for a solar system for such a house at at least 10,000 euros. In total, this amounts to more than 40,000 euros in additional costs that builders would have to face if the government's draft were to become law.
It is still unclear how much money they can save through state subsidy programs. According to the Efficiency House 55 standard, those willing to build have so far received a grant of up to 48,000 euros. Solar systems, in turn, are subsidized by a feed-in tariff of around 8 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity. This feed-in tariff is capped in the absolute amount. If the installation of solar systems became compulsory, either the subsidy would have to be increased or everyone would receive less. A roof system costing between 10,000 and 15,000 euros pays for itself after around ten years. The demand for such systems is also high for this reason. The Federal Association of the Solar Industry speaks of two million installed systems, 184,000 were added last year. Should the legislator prescribe an obligation to install,he would also have to specify a minimum size and, for example, clarify the question of how to deal with heavily shaded roofs.
In mid-May, the federal cabinet announced not only the tightened climate protection law, but also the immediate program to implement the new climate targets.
A total of 8 billion euros should be available for this.
Around 2.5 billion euros are to be made available for building renovation in 2022 and a further 2 billion euros in 2023.
The aim is to get the program off the ground during this legislative period, said a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Finance on Friday.
The draft also provides for an additional funding program for electric heat pumps.
They are to be given special support until 2025 as the “most important, future-oriented heating technology”.
Already compulsory in Berlin and Baden-Württemberg
The idea of making solar systems compulsory is not new. At the state level, the Berlin Senate launched one in March of this year. It should apply to all new buildings and fundamental roof renovations from 2023. Last year, Baden-Württemberg decided to make solar systems mandatory for non-residential buildings from 2022.
In other areas too, the costs are rising because of climate protection. The price of CO2 has made heating more expensive since the beginning of the year. The CDU and SPD are still arguing about whether tenants should bear the higher utility bills alone or whether the CO2 price should be split in half. Petrol and diesel will also gradually become more expensive in the coming years due to the price of CO2. When the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock calculated this in an interview a few days ago, the SPD also criticized this, which had previously introduced this CO2 price together with the CDU / CSU.