Hacker News Reader

Comment by atlantas | Hacker News Reader

Germany is Russia’s biggest gas customer. CNN has previously reported that Europe relies on Russia for around 35% of its natural gas, Germany over 50%. But with the threat of supply disruption following Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Germany along with other European countries has been looking to ramp up LNG imports.

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-...

View on HN

We use it for HEATING. It cannot be replaced without "Sektorenkopplung" / switching to heatpumps first.

This is a chicken-and-egg scenario: gas is available so few switch to heat pumps; few switch to heat pumps because gas is so readily available. The goal over time should be to move infrastructure away from gas and towards electric, and part of that is improving the power-generation system. Don't think only about today; think about where things should be moving tomorrow. "Thinking only about today" is part of the reason Germany is still dependent on Russian gas and oil.

WRONG. New residential homes are forbidden to be powered by gas. Old residential buildings have to follow Gebäudeenergiengesetz GEG, so they have to be modernized and isolated.

This entire concept is called Sektorenkopplung.

what you say is wrong. most new homes still are powered by gas. on the 1st january 2025 you need to also have like 45% powered by something else. germany is powered by gas and the alternatives for heating aren't that better (oil and pellets)

For someone who's wrong, you use a lot of caps. Fact is, most German homes are heated with gas and that is partially due to the politicians who have been close to the O&G industry, and partially due to "das haben wir immer so gemacht."

Due to low ownership rate of apartments, why would a landlord invest more money in heating with heatpumps or using more efficient insulation materials when he would bear the costs, but the tenant would get the benefits? So they only do it when forced to, or it is cheaper to use renewables.

Most of Germany, including politicians and home owners would quite gladly stay on fossil fuels aside from some blowhards who talk more than act.

These things can all be true at the same time:

Reply on news.ycombinator.com