Building Heating Supply Areas / Predominant Heating Types 2005

Map Description

The graphical representation of the assessed structural heating data for Berlin’s residential and commercial spaces provides a useful tool for analyzing both larger-scale contiguous areas and self-contained sites.

Map 08.01 Building Heating Supply Areas

Fuel consumption in buildings greatly depends on their structural layout and geographical location. Marked differences can be noted between the city’s 12 boroughs; usage of the different energy carriers varies greatly depending on the boroughs’ respective locations within the city (cf. fig. 3).

Map 08.01.1 District Heating Supply Areas reflects very clearly the local proximity of heating plants and heating power plants to their respective supply areas. The largest share of district heating in Berlin is provided by Vattenfall Europe, with a network spanning approx. 1,300 km. About 2000 of the 6,691 blocks with access to a district heating network also make use of this heating option (more than 50 percent). In newly developed and existing outskirt residential areas such as Hohenschönhausen, Marzahn or Märkisches Viertel, many large housing estates are supplied exclusively with district heat. Altogether, the map demonstrates Berlin’s leading position in Europe for the supply of district heating. Since 1995, many of the potential candidates for district heat connection – particularly coal-heated old buildings bordering existing district-heat-supplied areas – have been integrated into the networks. Figure 8 shows an overview of the spatial distribution of district-heat-supplied areas.

Fig. 8: District heat provider in Berlin

Around 20,000 household equivalents p.a. are newly connected to the district heating network by Vattenfall Europe according to the company’s own statement. The district heating network expands on average 20km per annum. Also in the future on average 20,000 households should be connected to the network.

Map 08.01.2 Gas Heating Supply Areas shows the finely meshed distribution of the gas pipe network over the entire Berlin conurbation. In contrast to the 1994 survey, the proportional shares of gas heating within the respective statistical blocks are no longer just between 10 and 40 percent. As well as in the areas that were already committed to gas heating in 1994, gas has also become the primary heating energy carrier in large areas of Mitte, Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Schöneberg, Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg (cf. fig. 11 and fig. 12), southern Pankow, and to a lesser degree Köpenick and Treptow. Isolated administration, service provision and production sites all over Berlin are also taking advantage of the gas network. Most of the new gas connections have been introduced in blocks that previously relied on coal but also – as e.g. in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf – on district heating for their heat supply.

Before the unification of the two city halves but also as late as 1994, there was only very little oil-fired building heating to be found in the eastern part of Berlin, and in virtually no block was fuel oil the predominant energy carrier. Map 08.01.3 Oil Heating Supply Areas (supply situation 2005), however, indicates that today – comprising the underlying experience of two decades – the organized replacement of coal-fired hot-water boilers led to a different situation in the eastern city outskirts where gas supply is the predominant energy carrier than in the western city outskirts where fuel oil is still the predominant energy carrier (cf. fig. 9 and fig. 10).

In the eastern part of the inner city, on the other hand, there are only few blocks with a high proportion of fuel oil for heating; mainly the area is connectet to the district heating network. In the neighbouring areas in the east (e.g. Prenzlauer Berg in the statistical areas 106 – 111) coal heating has been replaced by fuel oil heating visibly (cf. fig. 13). Figure 12 shows this increase referring to the year 2000 with a high postive growth of fuel oil.

Supply structures in the western part of the city have undergone much less change. In the suburban housing areas on the city outskirts, fuel oil continues to dominate as the primary heating source. The fuel oil share of the total heated floor area in such blocks is often well above 60 percent.

Fig. 9: 1994/2000 consumption changes for individual heating types; blocks containing single-family and duplex houses, Lichtenrade and Kaulsdorf/Mahlsdorf (predominantly residential blocks with "garden style" architecture)

Fig. 10: 2000/2005 consumption changes for individual heating types; blocks containing single-family and duplex houses, Lichtenrade and Kaulsdorf/Mahlsdorf (predominantly residential blocks with "garden style" architecture)

Map 08.01.4 Coal Heating Supply Areas very clearly demonstrates the dramatic 90 percent decrease in coal heating in housing and workplace areas since 1994 (cf. fig. 9 and fig. 12). Currently, only 2 percent of all spaces are heated with coal; particularly these are in areas with old buildings like Kreuzberg, the northern Neukölln, Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg, Wedding and isolated also in the eastern city outskirts. Whereas 1.6 million tons of lignite were still being used for heating in 1991, this value sank down to 600,000 tons in 1994, to 90,000 tons in 1999/2000 and by 2005 reached a comparatively low 22,000 tons.

Fig. 11: 1994/2000 consumption changes for individual heating types; blocks containing Wilhelminian-period buildings, Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg

Fig. 12: 2000/2005 consumption changes for individual heating types; blocks containing Wilhelminian-period buildings, Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg

Fig. 13: 2000/2005 use of fuel oil in Prenzlauer Berg (block areas)

Note that this graphical representation does not show that more than 80 percent of the fuel used by Vattenfall’s major district heating power plants continues to be anthracite, as well as lignite (e.g., the Klingenberg heating power plant) (cf. Map 08.02.2).

Map 08.02 Predominant Heating Types

Map 08.02.1 Supply Shares of Individual Energy Carriers

As the predominant heating types represented on this map demonstrate, the heating structures within the two city halves still differ greatly. In the west, particularly the areas outside of the inner City-Rail Circle Line, fuel oil has a long tradition of being the dominant fuel type for building heating.

In the inner city, district heating is generally the primary heating source. Natural gas is a dominating source only in parts of Kreuzberg, Neukölln and Wedding; however, as mentioned above (cf. 08.01.2 Gas Heating Supply Areas), its use has become wide-spread throughout Berlin.

In the eastern parts of the city, the dominating role of coal heating that could still be noted for large areas in 1994 has diminished almost completely. It has been replaced foremostly with natural gas and district heating. The dramatic increase in gas heating recorded since 1994 – almost 70 percent – is caused primarily by increased usage in the eastern boroughs. Thanks to the established supply networks, district heat has also been a primary source for heating in these areas, even before 1989. In the modern development projects of Marzahn and Hellersdorf, district heat in fact has a supply share of 100 percent.

In some outskirt areas such as Biesdorf, Mahlsdorf and Rahnsdorf, mixed supply types dominate, e.g., gas plus fuel oil. As with another frequently encountered mixed supply type – district heat plus fuel oil – this is largely a result of replacing coal as an energy source. In the western part, mixed supply with gas and oil is dominant in areas with contiguous block development, for instance Schöneberg, Tiergarten, Wedding, as well as Spandau and Reinickendorf.

With regard to future developments in the use of heating energy, it is the mixed supply areas of Berlin that are of particular interest – as are those where different supply structures are directly adjacent. Due to the spatial proximities in these areas, there are great opportunities to further develop the use of district heat and gas.

Map 08.02.2 Fuel Use of Major Heating Plants and Heating Power Plants

Map 08.02.2 Fuel Use of Major Heating Plants and Heating Power Plants demonstrates that even in Berlin’s power plants, fuel use varies greatly. The predominant energy sources used in the city’s 35 certified plants are anthracite and lignite (about 40 percent each) as well as natural gas (20 percent). Fuel use ranges from 100 percent natural gas (e.g., the Charlottenburg and Mitte heating plants) to 90 percent lignite (e.g., Klingenberg heating power plant) (cf. also fig. 7).