These are crucial weeks to understand what the future of gas boilers in our homes: will they still be financeable with building bonuses or other support mechanisms? What characteristics must they have to be eligible for financing?
A decision is expected by the summer European Commission on what exactly we should mean by “fossil fuel boiler”, in the context of EPBD directive 2024/1275 (Energy Performance of Buildings), also known as the Green Homes Directive.
The text was published on 8 May in the Official Journal of the EU following final approval by member states in the Council. It provides for various measures, including objectives for reducing the average energy consumption of residential buildings and obligations to install photovoltaic systems on different categories of properties.
We will now focus on a particularly delicate point, that of boilers.
Gas boilers, looking for a definition
In paragraph 8 of article 13 of the directive (Technical systems for buildings), it is stated that “The Commission publishes guidelines to establish what does the concept of fossil fuel boiler include?” (our boldface in the quotes).
“It’s a very urgent questionbecause countries are preparing the budgets for 2025 and they need to know if they will still be able to finance the purchase and installation of these boilers from next year”, he explains to QualEnergia.it Davide Sabbadinwhich is closely following the evolution of the dossier (Sabbadin is Deputy Policy Manager for energy and climate at the network of associations of the European Environment Bureau).
Defining precisely what a heat generator powered by fossil fuels is is of fundamental importance, to apply paragraph 15 of the art. 17 (Financial incentives, skills and market barriers): “From 1 January 2025 the member states they no longer offer financial incentives for the installation of unique boilers [nel senso di autonome] powered by fossil fuels.”
Exceptions are those selected for investment, before 2025, in accordance with the National Recovery Plans, the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund.
In the meetings in Brussels among the stakeholders involved – producer associations, environmental groups, renewable energy operators and so on – we are looking for a compromise between positions that are very distant from each other.
The positions on the field
At one extreme, Sabbadin explains, there is the position that seems to be more in line with the convictions demonstrated so far byItaly and by the majority of its industry: the one that aims “to enable finance everything”, because gas boilers are potentially able to use certain percentages of renewable gasessuch as green hydrogen or biomethane.
This logic would leave the doors open to current devices, with perhaps some “cosmetic” interventions to prepare them for the future use of mixtures of natural gas and hydrogen (the so-called boilers “hydrogen ready”).
On the opposite side, there is the position of environmental groups as part of the campaign Coolproductsled by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and the Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS).
For them, gas boilers, even if theoretically capable of using variable percentages of hydrogen and/or biomethane, should be considered as “fossil fuel boilers” which therefore should be totally excluded from the possibility of being financed by the State. The directive does not mention a ban on their installation, but only an exclusion from any financial support, and it is important to specify this clearly.
In essence, for environmentalists the definition of boiler using fossil fuels is the following: “A heating system that uses, in whole or in part, solid, gaseous or liquid fuels of non-renewable origin or made using non-renewable energies for the production of heat”.
In the draft of the interpretative circular of the Commission on the art. 17 (15) in consultation in the meetings in Brussels, which QualEnergia.it was able to browse, the orientation of the EU executive seems to be the following: a gas boiler can be considered “non-fossil” – therefore eligible for public funding – only if it is installed on one net local mainly fed from fuels of renewable origin (at the time of installation of the boiler), therefore green hydrogen (produced with electrolysis from renewable sources) or biomethane.
Among the proposals circulated, but not accepted by the Commission, at least for now, Sabbadin points out, is that of linking the sale of “non-fossil” gas boilers to contracts binding at least ten years for the supply of certified biomethane or green hydrogen, by distribution companies.
In practice, it would be a sort of “package” of technology and physical supply, in the hands of energy utilities, as proposed in the May 2024 position paper of Coolproducts.
However, the EEB reminds us, the use of hydrogen should be reserved for so-called sectors “hard-to-abate”such as heavy industries, where it is more difficult to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while for heating homes there are much more efficient alternatives, primarily the electric heat pumps.
Energy efficiency classes
Another aspect to consider, mentioned in the Brussels draft, is that Regulation 2017/1369 onenergy labelling provides as follows: “When Member States provide incentives for a product specified in a delegated act, such incentives shall aim at two higher energy efficiency classes among those in which a significant percentage of the products are located, or to higher classes indicated in this delegated act”.
However, the Commission reports, stand-alone boilers, according to the data currently available, they don’t fit in these classes and therefore could not be subsidized, regardless of the type of fuel (fossil or renewable) used.
But how many renewables in hybrid systems?
Article 14 of the EPBD states: “It should however be possible to provide financial incentives for the installation of installations of heating hybrids with a considerable share of renewable energysuch as combining a boiler with a solar thermal system or with a heat pump”.
What will this “considerable share” be?
Here the Commission’s orientation, states Sabbadin, “seems to be that of leaving the decision to individual states members, but the risk is letting in through the window what we wanted to let out through the door”, i.e. the use of fossil gas.
A compromise could be to leave governments free without being able to go below a certain level minimum threshold of renewables, which for environmental groups should be clearly established at least 65%in order to avoid having fossil boilers “masked” with false green credentials.
As mentioned, Brussels has not specified what the share of renewables should be in hybrid systems; however, he highlighted that the incentives financial should be addressed Alone proportionally the extent to which renewable energies are used in the hybrid heating system.
In other words, the installation of a heating system based entirely on renewable sources should be encouraged more than a combined system that partially uses the combustion of fossil fuels in a boiler.
As you can see, the uncertainties and there are still many possible nuances: we will see in these weeks how the gas boiler game will end.
