Germany sees significant shift to renewable energy in new buildings, with heat pumps playing a major role. According to the Federal Statistical Office, more than two-thirds of the nearly 76,100 new residential buildings completed in 2024 use heat pumps as the primary source of energy for heating, a significant increase of five percentage points compared to the previous year and a more than doubling of the 2014 figure of 31.8 percent.
Heat pumps, which utilize geothermal and environmental heat, are particularly popular in single and two-family homes, with 74.1 percent of new single and two-family homes using a heat pump as the primary heating energy, compared to 45.9 percent in multi-family homes.
Renewable energy sources have become the dominant force in new residential buildings, with 73.9 percent of the 2024 completed buildings relying on renewable energy as the primary source of heat, a significant increase from the 2014 figure of 38.5 percent. Other renewable energy sources, such as biomass, solar thermal and biogas, also play a role, with 3.6 percent of new buildings using biomass, 0.5 percent using solar thermal and 0.2 percent using biogas.
While heat pumps are the primary source of heating in most new buildings, other renewable energy sources are also used, often in combination with heat pumps. In 2024, renewable energy was used in 82.3 percent of new residential buildings for heating, a significant increase from the 2014 figure of 61.7 percent.
Gas was the second most common primary energy source in 2024, used in 15 percent of new buildings, a significant decrease from the 2014 figure of 50.7 percent. Oil, on the other hand, was used in only 0.3 percent of new buildings, a significant decrease from the 2014 figure of 1.2 percent.
The trend towards the use of renewable energy in new buildings is also reflected in the planning of new residential buildings, with 84.8 percent of the 54,800 new buildings approved in 2024 expected to use renewable energy as the primary source of heating, with heat pumps expected to be used in 81 percent of these buildings. Gas, on the other hand, is becoming less popular, with only 3.7 percent of the approved new buildings expected to use it as the primary energy source.
In existing buildings with living space, gas is still the dominant energy source, with more than half (53.9 percent) of the buildings using it, followed by oil, which is used in about a quarter (24.7 percent) of the buildings. Renewable energy sources, on the other hand, are still playing a relatively minor role, with only 10.2 percent of the buildings using them, mostly in the form of solar or geothermal heat and waste or exhaust heat, often in combination with heat pumps.
Despite the increasing use of heat pumps in new buildings, the production of heat pumps in Germany has seen a significant decline, with 162,400 heat pumps produced in 2024, a decrease of 59.4 percent compared to the previous year and a value of 587 million euros, a decrease of 51.7 percent compared to the previous year. The export of heat pumps has also seen a significant decline, with a value of 480 million euros in 2024, a decrease of 40.2 percent compared to the previous year.