Like Loriot: Habeck suddenly appears in the house with the capital's press - "Absurd"

Thuringia 24 Like Loriot: Habeck suddenly appears in the house with the capital's press - "Absurd" Article by Jonas Forster • 10 hours • 2 minutes reading time "Half past eight in a suburb of Hanover. In May, a 75-year-old had a heat pump, buffer storage and PV system installed for 70,000 euros. Now the Minister of Economic Affairs and the capital's press are coming to visit." Felix Hackenbruch (political correspondent for the Tagesspiegel) describes on X, as one of the journalists present, a bizarre scene that even the Minister of Economic Affairs Robert Habeck finds "a bit absurd" when he gets out of his armored limousine and sees the many journalists in front of the house. "But you have invited a lot of guests," the minister greets the neatly dressed homeowner with a wink. He is still happy: "I'm proud of my system." She explains: "When the sun is shining and the battery is full, I turn on the washing machine." It's fun to save money. Have her neighbors also developed a taste for heat pumps? No, they have no interest in the technology. It was only thanks to the support that she was able to afford the heat pump. "I received the maximum subsidy, otherwise the project would not have been feasible," says the owner. The bottom line is that she invested 34,000 euros. 54 percent fewer heat pumps sold than in the previous year Why the Habeck visit? The minister wants to save the heat pump. Because this technology is faltering. According to the Federal Association of the German Heating Industry, manufacturers sold a total of 90,000 units in the first half of 2024, which corresponds to a decrease of 54 percent compared to the previous year. The BDH also expects sales of just 200,000 heat pumps for the whole year. Habeck visited the heat pump manufacturer Stiebel Eltron in Holzminden on Monday. There he said that the heat pump had been "badmouthed". He wanted to make it clear that there was "great funding" and that it was a "trap to reinstall fossil fuels". It was therefore a promotional tour for the heat pump.