Energy

Austria on its way to more renewable energy

Austria ranks high in renewable energy consumption, mainly due to its high share in hydropower and biomass. It was among the four EU countries with the highest share of energy from renewable sources in gross final energy consumption in 2005 and amongst the Member States committing to the most ambitious national targets for 2020 (in Austria: 34%) under the EU Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources. Since 2005 the share of renewable energy in Austria had grown continuously, reaching nearly 29% in 2008. The main driver for the growing contribution of renewable energy is the enhanced use of biomass due to strong incentives such as targets set by regulations, a long-term focus on research and development policies as well as subsidies.

Biomass for Space Heating

Wood biomass for heating purposes has always played an important role in the Austrian energy supply. In the beginning of the 1980s, strict air pollution legislation was introduced, forcing companies to improve the performance of wood boilers with regard to energy efficiency and emissions. Strong competition started which resulted in significant improvements and high-performance biomass combustion technologies. Hence, biomass boilers made in Austria nowadays represent one of the best available biomass combustion technologies worldwide. As regards consumers, grants for wood boilers stimulated demand. In 2009, more than 70 000 pellet boilers were installed with a power capacity of 1,356 MW.

Over 1,000 biomass district heating stations have been constructed in rural areas since the 1980s, often with subsidies providing the decisive incentive.

Biomass for Electricity Generation

Green electricity legislation was introduced in 2002 pursuant to the EU Directive 2001/77/EC on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources, regulating eligibility of support and feed-in tariffs. In 2009 , electricity produced from biomass under the green electricity scheme accounted to more than 2,500 GWh corresponding to around 5% of total electricity production. 

Biofuels for Transport

In 2004, Austria's government adopted an ordinance on biofuels exceeding the targets of EU Directive 2003/30/EC (2% share in 2005, 5.75% in 2010) resulting in a 7% share of biofuels in 2009.

Outlook

The objective of the (recently elaborated) energy strategy is the development of an energy system providing energy services to private consumers and businesses in the future while complying with EU climate and energy requirements (34% renewables, 16% reduction of GHG in the non-ETS sector). Achieving stabilisation of final energy consumption (considered to be indispensable) is a major challenge for Austria.

According to recent national research papers, main challenges in the energy sector are achieving a higher rate of thermal refurbishment of existing buildings, a new approach to transport and mobility services and a higher rate of cogeneration and renewables in the production sector as well as future decision-making on energy supply and transformation technologies and increased public research funds for clean energies.