Background: Eco-tax, power-heat combination and BTPS

The German government has placed an annually increasing special tax on electricity, mineral oil and natural gas. It is designed to make energy consumption more expensive and therefore to provide incentives to increase energy efficiency and to use energy more conscientiously.

The income generated from the tax goes into social security funding, and therefore contributes to general welfare. This is not the place to comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the law. However, in recent years it has certainly led to a much higher interest in energy saving measures and the use of block-type thermal power stations as well as local heat networks. This is particularly encouraged by the fact that power-heat combination is exempt from the tax as long as it achieves a minimum degree of efficiency of 75%.