Fears and questions about a possible ban on gas boilers despite government announcements

“Our objective is to produce the most carbon-free energy possible (…) but to date there is no objective to ban the production of heating and domestic hot water. in old housing", Mr. Klein told the National Assembly during the session of questions to the government.

“It is work that we must carry out collectively with all the players and suppliers to be balanced, but while sticking to the decarbonization objective which is ours”, he added.

The minister was questioned by the deputy (Liot) of Morbihan Paul Molac on the possibility that the government prohibits the renewal of gas boilers in old housing, a prospect which worries the industrialists of the gas, the agricultural world and the building sector.

In such a case, estimated the centrist parliamentarian, this would require replacing the fleet of gas boilers with heat pumps, more expensive equipment, filled with components made in Asia and whose use would massively increase electricity needs while by threatening the development of French biogas production.

France consumed 450 TWh of gas in 2022, mainly for heating buildings and made up of 98% fossil gas purchased abroad.

Since January 1, 2022, regulations prohibit gas-only heating solutions in new homes. The ban will be imposed on collective housing in 2025, when only hybrid solutions will be authorized, integrating an electric heat pump or a thermodynamic water heater.

Fears and questions about a possible ban on gas boilers

The good old gas boiler, already gradually banned in new buildings, is it doomed to disappear? The question concerns the sector but also elected officials, the construction industry and the agricultural world which invests in green gas and fears a rise in the
all-electric.

After written questions from two senators, it was the turn on Tuesday of another parliamentarian, the centrist deputy Paul Molac, to worry and force the government to reveal its intentions.

“Today, the banning of gas only concerns new buildings, but what will happen tomorrow?” Asked the elected representative of Morbihan at the National Assembly, during the session of questions to the government.

"The sector is worried, discussions at the highest level suggest that their renewal could be prohibited during renewal in old buildings", he added, while in any event, the next generations will warm up less on gas than today.

Reducing the consumption of heating gas aims to reduce France's dependence on fossil gas that is harmful to the planet and purchased abroad at exorbitant prices. The decline could reach between 43 and 85% by 2050, according to scenarios examined by the Energy Regulation Commission (CRE).

“Many farmers have invested in methanisation, therefore in the production of green gas directly injected into the networks”, recalled MP Molac, asking to know if in the long term, green gas or biogas will be “purely and simply abandoned” .

"To date, there is no objective of banning the production of heating and domestic hot water in old housing", replied the Minister Delegate for the City and Housing Olivier Klein.

An affirmative tone, but only in appearance: "It is work that we must carry out collectively with all the players and suppliers to be balanced, but while sticking to the decarbonization objective which is ours", said he added.

"Consultation"

According to several concordant sources, a "consultation" between the ministries involved and the actors of the building and the energy must open soon.

Since January 1, 2022, regulations prohibit gas-only heating solutions in new homes. The ban will apply to collective housing in 2025, when only hybrid electricity-gas solutions will be authorized.

"What worries me is that if we want to do without gas, we are not able to produce all the electricity we are going to need in the next few years, given the time it takes to build nuclear reactors and fields of production of renewable energies", estimates to AFP the centrist Breton senator Michel Canévet, warning against "a decision taken with the punch".

His ecologist colleague in the Senate Daniel Salmon also wrote in March to the government, fearing, he told AFP, "a forced march towards all-electric, and all-nuclear".

In the world of gas, the fear of a possible ban on gas boilers is real. Especially since the exit of the gas is far from being a science fiction. The city of Zurich in Switzerland achieved this through planning and compensation to owners.

For several months, the sector has been mobilizing and insisting on its green transformation, in its infancy but promising.

Only 2% of the gas consumed in France (450 TWh in 2022) comes from local renewable production by methanizers digesting agricultural waste, sewage sludge and perhaps one day bio-waste collected from households.

But from 2030, we would go to 20%, "in other words the day after tomorrow", exclaimed before Christmas Laurence Poirier-Dietz, the general manager of GRDF, the gas transport company.

"It would be a major mistake to remove all gas heating from buildings because it would increase electricity needs, especially at peak times" of the day (morning and evening), she insisted.

Today, 12 million homes are heated with gas in France. The sector ensures that it has immediate and long-term solutions: boilers with very high energy performance, hybrid heat pumps and sufficient green gas production potential to cover all our needs in 2050.