Jan Rosenow’s Post

Thx for informative thread. 1. Not sure what it means for a boiler to be using 65% renewable energy- does it mean a boiler has to be on 65% hydrogen? Crazy… 4. Economists are mostly unified that carbon pricing is a more efficient & rational way to set policy than mandates so FDP seems on solid ground here 11. Hydrogen… mostly crazy. Can someone post its economics not wishful thinking? In Europe are efficient heat pump hydronic boilers available? In the US heat pumps exclusively generate warm air. I have a heat pump water heater (output 120F) whose efficiency would decline if redesigned for hydronic heating (output more like 90 C). Otherwise it’s a big lift to retrofit a place without ducts.

How is the 65% renewable energy measured? Is it every hour? On average per day/month/year?

If Germany converts their curtailed 100% wasted electricity into hydrogen because batteries are worse for longer duration inter seasonal energy storage due to leakage current and high capital cost, then this cheap green hydrogen can be used as vehicle fuel for heavy goods vehicles, and to displace natural gas at CCGT plants, and some of this hydrogen can also be used for heating, apart from making fertiliser, and methanol, pharmaceutical and metallurgical products too. The RETAIL price of roadside hydrogen in Germany is fairly competitive than roadside EV charging, and the future price of green hydrogen is likely to be far cheaper than today. See below for more https://www.linkedin.com/posts/amitava-roy-58831a1a_h2live-hydrogen-stations-in-germany-europe-activity-7070401165418471424-u3iX?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android

There are lots of local legal barriers too. I had Octopus Energy come to my house near Munich last week to check the viability of switching to a heat pump. But they said my house was unsuitable as I live in a middle-terraced house and Bavarian law stipulates that you can't install a heat pump unit within 3m of your neighbour's house. This meant a very limited area to install the outside unit and the Octopus engineer told me it wouldn't work. In addition, I also had two solar panel installation companies assess my roof for solar panels and due to another local law that stipulates that you can't install solar panels within 1.5m or so from your neighbours house (fire regulation) and the fact we have windows in the roof, there wasn't enough surface area to make it viable.

It sounds like a good idea to have a plan, rather than simply throw households in at the deep end.

Can you shift the blame on politics/ local elections when Germany wanted to be technology neutral and relying on carbon pricing. This is a welcome step. The UK had to curtail nearly £880M worth of electricity in the past year as nowhere we could store such a vast amount, either as electricity or as heat storage. Germany is also going face the same dilemma in the future. The UK'S electricity grid is significantly greener ( in terms of CO2 emission/ kWh) than Germany's electricity grid, about which many people don't appreciate this reality. If Germany also adopts 70-80% electricity in the energy mix from intermittent wind and solar, then any lull in wind during Oct- Dec means Germany is back to CCGT/ coal again. This is because, the required size of hot water tank to go alongwith individual heat pumps for a typical 3bed house over 2 weeks, will occupy the entire back garden to be filled with large insulated hot water tanks. Alternatively curtail electricity can be converted into H2, & delivered by pipeline when needed to use in existing gas H2 boilers, or used as fuel. This is about system resilience and preventing 100% wastage. I don't believe COP3 will be any better than preventing 100% wastage via H2.

Classical History when you use the stick instead of the carrot. Generally speaking the stick will not bring us the right Climate solusions we need. We have 100 of sticks and 100 of carrots. We have to use the best carrots for the right purpose and some few times a stick. Use it wicely.

d) might raise legal questions - how would “Germany-wide" heat planning work in a federal state? (Not a constitutional law expert myself by any means, but somehow feel this has a strange ring to it) Anyway: Thanks for a great, informative 🧵!

Glen Ryan … an on topic post related to your other post today.