At its meeting today, Chemnitz City Council adopted the municipal heating plan for the city of Chemnitz. For the first time, Chemnitz now has a strategic roadmap for a long-term climate-neutral heat supply by 2040 at the latest.
The municipal heating plan shows which heating supply options can be considered in the individual areas of the city in the future. These include district heating, local heating solutions and decentralised renewable heating systems such as heat pumps. The aim is to provide citizens, businesses and homeowners with orientation and planning security at an early stage.
The heating plan is a strategic specialised plan. It does not result in any direct obligations for owners. There is no obligation to connect to a heating network or to replace existing heating systems. There is also no automatic entitlement to a district heating connection.
With the heating plan, the City of Chemnitz is pursuing the goal of providing an affordable, reliable and climate-friendly heat supply. In addition to the expansion of heating networks, decentralised solutions play a particularly important role here. The importance of heat pumps and other renewable heating systems was therefore emphasised once again during the consultations.
The creation of the heating plan began in 2024 with the support of the federal government. Chemnitz received funding totalling around 270,000 euros for this. Stakeholders from the energy supply, housing industry, science, business, trades, initiatives and interest groups were involved.
The public was also extensively involved. A total of 32 comments were received during the public participation period at the beginning of 2026. Many citizens raised questions about the affordability of the heating transition and the potential impact on existing heating systems. Other comments related to the future role of hydrogen.
The comments received were analysed and documented. As a result, the municipal heating plan was adapted in several points. For example, decentralised renewable heating solutions were given greater consideration and the previous test areas were restructured. At the same time, the heating plan remains open to all technologies. Whether and to what extent hydrogen can play a role in the future depends, among other things, on further federal legal requirements and technical developments.
With the city council's decision, the implementation of initial measures will now begin. These include examining the prospects for gas distribution networks and possible hydrogen networks together with the supplier eins/inetz, regular monitoring of the heating transition, the further development of socio-economic studies on affordability, the expansion of photovoltaic systems on municipal buildings and the examination of electricity grid capacities with a view to the increasing use of heat pumps and electromobility together with inetz and MITNETZ.
Frequently asked questions and answers will also be published to provide citizens with better information. In addition, a decision-making aid for the installation of new heating systems and possible heating grid connections is to be created following possible changes to federal law.
The municipal heating plan takes into account the current legal requirements of the federal government. At the same time, the legal framework is expected to evolve in the coming years. However, the fundamental objectives of the Chemnitz heating plan remain unaffected by this as things stand.
The municipal heating plan, the assessment protocol and additional information will be published on the City of Chemnitz website.
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