Austria looking to add 1,200MW of solar capacity by 2020 
Austria is looking to increase its solar photovoltaic capacity from 172MW in 2012 to have an additional 1,200MW by 2020, with €8m per annum being allocated to support tariffs to encourage investors into the sector. Despite being a leader in tapping hydro and bio-energy resources, solar currently only accounts for around 0.6% of Austria's total primary energy consumption. However, in addition to building its capacity, the country is also investigating ways to normalise storage of solar energy to cater to day and night as well as seasonal fluctuations. 

When I arrived in Vienna to join the Opec Secretariat 30 years ago, I noticed a single wind turbine on the Danube Island next to a conventional power station. It was odd-looking and may have been the only one in Austria for research purposes at a time when wind energy was hardly on anybody’s mind.

It is advantageous to look at Austria’s energy policy as an exemplar of policies adopted by OECD and IEA members and for oil producers to draw lessons from. In 1986, total primary energy consumption (TPEC) in Austria was 26.4 million tonnes of oil equivalent (toe), and renewable energy was 7- and 0.3-mtoe of hydroelectricity and bio and waste energy respectively. Therefore, fossil energy was at the level of 19.1-mtoe whereas oil’s was at 10.4-mtoe.

Driven by concerns about high oil prices in the 1970s and early 1980s and by security of supplies issues, Austria adopted a policy of improving energy efficiency, diversifying sources and increasing renewable energy sources’ share in consumption.

By 2015, TPEC increased to 34.1-mtoe and renewables increased to 8.3- and 2.4-mtoe of hydroelectricity and bio and waste energy respectively, and fossil energy was 23.4-mtoe whereas oil’s was at 12.6-mtoe.

Austria is a leader in tapping its hydro and bio energy resources, but these are reaching their potential and the current drive is to increase the share of other renewables. These have already increased eightfold in the period under consideration. The country is targeting a share of 34 per cent for renewables by 2020.

The potential of wind energy is much higher than the 2013 electricity consumption of 72.2-TWh. However, wind energy was nothing to talk about in 1986 and remained so until almost the turn of the century where installed wind turbines capacity was only 77-MW in 2000 and increased rapidly to 2,095-MW by 2014, an increase by more than 27 times.

The target is set for just over 3,000-MW by 2020.

Encourage investors

Incentive schemes were used to encourage development of wind farms even in expensive locations — like mountain sites at altitudes of 1,900 metres in the south. The Green Electricity Act of 2012 allocates €11.2 million (Dh45.9 million) a year in support of wind energy feed to encourage investors.

The cost of wind turbine plants have decreased sharply over the years and are considered to be the least expensive among power generation options in addition having a low operating cost.

Solar energy use is new to the scene in Austria where only 0.2-mtoe was used in 2015 TPEC (or 0.6 per cent of total). But this is set to increase as part of the expansion in overall renewable energies from 2.4-mtoe in 2015 to 9.23-mtoe in 2020, according to IEA’s Austria energy policy review of 2014. Solar photovoltaic capacity of 172-MW in 2012 is to add 1,200-MW by 2020. Eight million euros a year is being allocated to support solar energy feed in tariff to encourage investors.

In this vein, Austria is engaged in research for solar energy storage not just to normalise consumption between day and night but — more ambitiously — between summer and winter. It has been reported that a research team has made substantial progress in storing a world-record level of thermal energy to cover warm water and heating demands in winter there.

Waste management is very advanced, with various kinds of waste separated and treated for recycling or energy recovery. Waste lubricating oil and shredded tyres for instance go to cement plants as fuel. Paper glass and plastics are recycled.

Thermal waste treatment plants

Residual waste such as from households and solid waste recovered from waste water plants are burnt in special thermal plants for energy recovery or electricity generation or both.

There are 12 thermal waste treatment plants in Austria — one in the centre of Vienna — and two in planning. The railway network plays a role in delivering waste to these plants from across the country. The resulting ash from these plants goes to landfills and metals for recycling.

Bio and waste are providing about 1-mtoe in 2015 and may not grow substantially further due to a policy of waste reduction and citizens’ awareness.

Since 2015, Upper Austria — the largest state in the country — is generating 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources of energy, including hydropower, where since 2002 investments of 2.8 billion euros were made.

Energy efficiency improvement is part of the policy and Austria has achieved a lot, especially in buildings and district heating by pipeline networks.

Still about 64 per cent of the energy needed in Austria has to be imported, especially from oil and gas. And while this ratio may be reduced slowly by the influx of gas and renewable energy, the transport sector would still need oil to drive it.

The writer is former head of the Energy Studies Department at the Opec Secretariat in Vienna.