Scharnebeck starts heat transition: climate protection through new heat planning!

Scharnebeck starts heat transition: climate protection through new heat planning!

A lot is happening in the Scharnebeck community when it comes to heat supply. What could be better than starting right away? The municipality has now started the municipal heat planning (KWP) project, an initiative that is intended to clearly set the course for a sustainable future. The first specialist workshop took place on June 26, 2025, which underlines how serious the joint municipality is about heat planning. This planning is not only voluntary, but also a necessary step towards planning security, as joint municipal mayor Laars Gerstenkorn emphasizes. Ultimately, all citizens in the region should be given a transparent overview of upcoming developments.

The legal basis for heat planning was created by a law that came into force on January 1, 2024. The aim of this law is to put the heat supply in Germany on a climate-friendly track and to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Heating heat accounts for over 50% of final energy consumption in Germany, a situation that urgently needs to be addressed sustainably, with a particular focus on the dependence on gas and oil bmwsb.bund.de.

Funding from the federal government

The joint municipality also didn't miss out and successfully applied for 90% funding through the “National Climate Protection Initiative”. She will therefore have to raise a mid-four-figure amount as her own contribution to the planning. This funding is intended not only to help keep costs under control, but also to achieve the ambitious goals of the heat transition, in which fossil fuels should be a thing of the past. The planned technologies promise exciting prospects: photovoltaic systems, solar thermal energy, heat pumps, biomass heating and industry-standard storage technologies are on the list.

The focus of the KWP is on identifying potential and further reducing energy dependencies in Scharnebeck. The workshop brought together representatives of various interest groups, including local heating engineers and employees of the Lüneburg district. Together they discussed the challenges and opportunities that heat supply brings to the community. In the end, realistic proposals for future heat supply were developed.

Next steps and citizen participation

And it continues: The companies enercity AG and IP Syscon GmbH are taking over the planning work for the first time. In addition, the Lüneburg district has already provided valuable data through its climate portal that is available to stakeholders. The next big stage is the report from the planning offices, which will be presented to the joint municipal council on September 17th. In order to inform residents at an early stage, a citizen information event is planned for October 7th at 7:00 p.m. in the Scharnebeck domain.

But it doesn't end here. A second meeting of experts will be scheduled in the fall to discuss the initial results. For everyone who is interested in these topics, the final results of the KWP are expected to be published in the first quarter of 2026. Until then, the joint municipality remains challenged and remains on track with the legally required catalog in order to develop and concretize the first plans for future heat supply in Germany.

With the start of their municipal heat planning, the people of Scharnebeck are not only assuming their local responsibility, but are also contributing to the nationwide energy transition. It will be exciting to see how this progress will develop in the coming months!