Berlin secures €1 bn loan to end coal heating by 2030

The Berlin Energy and Heat Company (BEW) has obtained a €1 billion, 20‑year loan from a consortium of nine banks to fund the city’s coal phase‑out in district heating. The financing will support the replacement of the two remaining coal‑fired heating plants with a large heat pump, a biomass unit, a power‑to‑heat system, a waste‑incineration plant and a new gas‑combined‑heat‑power plant that will later be convertible to hydrogen. BEW plans to spend €3.5 billion on the project, aiming to raise the share of renewable heat to 40 % by 2030 and to achieve carbon‑neutral heating by 2045. Berlin’s district‑heating network, the largest in Western Europe, currently supplies about 700,000 households and draws roughly 95 % of its heat from coal and gas. The loan is described as a strong signal for the wider German heat transition, which other cities such as Hamburg, Leipzig and Hannover are also pursuing under national heat‑plan requirements due by June 2026.