At its meeting on July 9, 2025, the city council unanimously adopted the municipal heating plan for the city of Aachen. The heating plan is published on the City of Aachen's website.

The decision was preceded by public participation in the period from March 5 to April 4, 2025. A total of 249 citizens took part in the information events in the city districts. 27 public agencies submitted comments on the topic. All findings were presented to politicians.

The seven district councils of the City of Aachen and the specialist committees for mobility, employment, economic and regional development, planning, climate and environment have taken note of the comments from the public and recommended that the City Council adopt the heating plan on the basis of these comments and findings.

What is the aim of the municipal heating plan?
Like many countries in the European Union (EU), Germany wants to become climate-neutral, i.e. emit significantly less carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Heating and hot water are responsible for a large proportion of unwanted CO2 emissions. The heating supply should therefore be converted to be climate-friendly. Germany must also become less dependent on natural gas or oil. Municipal heat planning is the basis for local implementation.

All cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants are legally obliged to draw up a municipal heating plan by mid-2026 and adopt it politically.

What does this mean for Aachen?
The municipal heating plan sets out guidelines for a climate-neutral, safe and economical heat supply in the city of Aachen. This includes: central supply options such as district heating or the use of waste heat and geothermal energy. Decentralized supply solutions are also examined.

The local authority has access to the data required for planning, commissions further studies, involves interest groups in the process and obtains support from external experts. The result of the heat planning is a non-binding recommendation on how the heat supply can be converted to be climate-neutral.

What heat supply is possible where in Aachen?
The use of district heating is not possible everywhere in the city of Aachen. This is an important result of the heat planning. The heating plan shows where district heating can be used in the future. However, it also shows in which urban areas individual solutions for supplying heat to buildings are required. And finally, there are residential districts in which decentralized local heating islands are conceivable. However, this usually requires more in-depth studies.

The city is calling on people to use the heating plan to find out which supply solutions are possible for residential buildings or commercial enterprises in Aachen in the future. It recommends that all building owners seek advice at an early stage about the possible heat supply of the future and about funding opportunities.

What happens next?
As the body responsible for further planning, the City of Aachen is obliged to review the heat plan every five years at the latest and to monitor progress in implementing the strategies and measures identified. As part of the AI-X Heat research project, it is looking for solutions to supplement the static review every five years with dynamic heat planning. The implementation of such a supplementary solution would involve closer monitoring of the implementation of the heat plan. This would help to correct, adapt and supplement measures where necessary and appropriate.

Internet: www.aachenklima.de/waermeplanung