And my German is terrible, but if I understood that correctly, they are talking about cogenerating heat and electricity together. I’ve been a strong proponent of cogeneration for years, but sadly, I think it’s past it’s peak. Solar makes so much more sense if they are similar in price. Sure 1-2 houses on the block might want these in case there is a week with low sun, but until we actually stop using base load power it’s only marginally significant. And for particularly cold locations, like Germany, use solar thermal water heaters and then use the hot water to heat the house. Much more efficient.

“rather bad” => “rather poorly”
“rather good” => “rather well”