Despite an almost 7% rise in applications for the support of solar plants, wood-based heating and heat pumps last year, the share of renewables in Germany’s heating and cooling sector in 2017 for the third year in a row stagnated at around 13%, the federation for renewable energy (BEE) said.

“The slight increase in applications for support can’t hide the fact that the market share of renewable energies in the heating market has hardly been rising for years,” BEE managing director Peter Röttgen said.