Fig. 5: Gas substitution in Germany by heat pumps.
From: Replacing gas boilers with heat pumps is the fastest way to cut German gas consumption
Modelled percentage of imported gas to Germany, substituted by renewable electricity through the installation of heat pumps in private households and in the chemical, paper, and food processing industries, in the four scenarios of Fig. 4. The columns in the background show the amount of gas substituted without installing new heat pumps (by using newly installed PV and wind generation to displace electricity from gas-fired power plants). The error bar in 2025 indicates the year-to-year weather fluctuations as standard deviation, the error bar in 2026 the local weather variations within Germany (see Supplementary Note 9). These variations are relatively small and similar in all years. Data are listed in Supplementary Table S7.
