Renewables get a boost in Austria
Long a leader in biomass, district heating, and solar thermal, Austria has yet to repeat the success of photovoltaics in Germany, even though the Alpine country has practically the same solar potential as neighboring Bavaria, the German state with the most installed PV capacity. Now, a new policy may change all that.
Last week, the Austrian National Council passed a revision of the country's Green Power Act with a two thirds majority. The goal was to ensure that Austria will remain independent of nuclear power imports and make the country a net power exporter, according to Economic and Energy Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner, who expects the new policy to create around 12 billion euros in investments by 2020.
Thanks partly to its geography, Austria already gets 68 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, but the new policy is expected to increase that figure to around 85 percent by 2020 and even take Austria beyond the target in its National Action Plan for Renewables.
In recent years, photovoltaics has been a non-starter in Austria, with miniscule programs completely filling up, leaving behind a waiting list for many years to come. The new policy provides a much larger annual budget of 50 million euros spread across several technologies: 11.5 million for wind, 10 million for biomass/biogas, eight million for photovoltaics, 1.5 million for micro hydropower, and the remaining 19 million available for flexible allocation.
While the new policy thus has a fixed budget, actual payment will be based on feed-in tariffs, and hence on actual power production (as opposed to upfront payment for the installation of systems). The feed-in tariffs were calculated to provide a return of "at least six percent," according to a governmental press release, which also states that the rates will be gradually reduced for new systems to improve cost efficiency. Once a system is installed, however, the rates are guaranteed for 13 to 15 years, depending on the energy source.
To work down the current waiting list, an additional 128 million euros has been made available in advance. The waiting list for micro-hydropower alone is worth around 20 million euros, whereas 80 million reportedly will be needed to process the waiting list for wind power and 28 million for photovoltaics; without these changes, the government says the waiting list would have extended until 2015 for wind power and 2025 for photovoltaics. (The press release speaks of 110 million euros in additional upfront funding, but a press spokesperson told Renewable's International that the figure is misleading.)
In absolute terms, wind capacity is to triple by 2020 from the current 1,000 megawatts to 3,000, with photovoltaic capacity rising from 100 to 1,200 megawatts during the same timeframe. The law also stipulates that Austria plans to export at least as much green power as it imports nuclear power by 2015. Austria does not have any nuclear plants in operation.
As usual in feed-in tariffs, the cost will be passed on to consumers in their power bills, and the government estimates that the new policy will cost the average ratepayer an extra 18 euros for the year in 2015. One common concern about feed-in tariffs is the impact of higher rates on poor households, and Austria has decided to limit these extra costs for the country's 300,000 low-income households to 20 euros per year. To ensure that the country's energy-intensive industry remains internationally competitive, such firms will also not have to pay the full amount, though the government has not yet provided any specific details.
E-Control, Austria's energy regulator, will also now present an annual report to the government analyzing the progress being made. (Craig Morris).
