Innovative energy technologies in Austria - Market Development 2013

2013 was characterized by an inhomogeneous development of the markets for solid biomass, photovoltaic, solar thermal, heat pumps and wind power. While in the field of photovoltaic since 2008 very high growth rates could be reached, the market figures in the field of wind power and heat pumps stabilized at a high level. Biomass boilers, biomass stoves and solar thermal energy had to record significant drops.

Photovoltaic

In 2013 the absolute highest market diffusion of photovoltaic (PV) systems could be reached. As a result grid-connected plants with a total capacity of 262,621 kWpeak and stand-alone systems with a total capacity of approximately 468 kWpeak were installed. The total amount of installed PV capacity in Austria increased to 263,089 kWpeak which led to a cumulated total installed capacity of 626 MWpeak. As a consequence the sum of produced electricity by PV plants in operation amounted to 626 GWh in 2013 and lead to a reduction in CO2 - emissions by 227,416 tons.

Wind power

After some years with too low feed-in tariff the "Ökostromgesetz 2012" allowed to install new capacities starting with 2011 and led to a total capacity of 1684 MWel by the end of 2013. In 2013 113 turbines with a capacity of 308 MWel were installed. This is an increase in capacity of more than 22.4 % compared to 2012. In 2013 nearly 3 TWh electricity have been produced by wind turbines. The total installed capacity had a production capacity of 3.6 TWh which counts for 5.8 % of national electricity consumption. The annual wind energy production saves more than 1.3 Million tons CO2equ (under the assumption that imported ENTSO-E mix was substituted).

Solid biomass - fuels

The consumption of final energy from sold biofuels increased from 142 PJ for 2007 to 179 PJ for 2013. The consumption of wood chips is increasing steadily since the beginning of the 1980s. In 2013 the wood chips consumption was 83 PJ and thus exceeds the consumption of wood logs with 71 PJ. The very well documented wood pellet market developed with an annual growth rate between 30 and 40 % until 2006. The pellet production in Austria was around 14.9 PJ (880000 t) in 2013.

Solid biomass - boilers and stoves

In 2012 the market for pellet boilers was growing again with 15 % increase of sales which was so far the historical maximum. In 2013 the biomass boiler sales declined due to higher biofuel prices and the effect of investments in advance in the years after the economic crisis. The sales figures of pellet boilers decreased by 14 %, the sales of wood log boilers decreased by over 16 % and the sale of small-scale (

Solar thermal collectors

In the period between the year 2002 and 2009 the solar thermal market grew significantly due to rising oil prices but also due to new applications in the multifamily house sector, the tourism sector as well as with new applications in solar assisted district heating and industrial process heat. After this phase of massive growths the sector is facing a declining market in the fourth year in a row because of the effects of economic and financial crisis and the beginning competition to other renewable technologies.

By the end of the year 2013 approx. 5 million m2 of solar thermal collectors were in operation. This corresponds to an installed thermal capacity of 3.541 MWth. The solar yield of the solar thermal systems in operation is equal to 2.051 GWhth. The avoided CO2-emissions are 560.483 tons, taking the usual heat mix in Austria into consideration. In 2013 a total of 181,650 m2 solar thermal collectors were installed, which corresponds to an installed thermal capacity of 127.2 MWth. The development of the solar thermal collector market in Austria was characterized by a decrease of the sales figures of 13 % in 2013.

Heat pumps

The total sales of heat pumps (home market and export market) increased from 2012 to 2013 slightly by 0.5 %, from 27,499 plants to 27,638 plants what conforms to stagnation on high level. A slight decrease of the home market (-2.3 %) was overcompensated by an increase of the export market (+6.7 %).

• Technische Universität Wien, Energy Economics Group (EEG)
  Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Peter Biermayr
• Bioenergy 2020+ GmbH
  Dipl.-Ing. Christa Kristöfel, Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Monika Enigl,
  Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Christoph Strasser, Dipl.-Ing. Manfred Wörgetter
• AEE INTEC
  Dipl.-Päd. Ing. Werner Weiß, Manuela Eberl
• Technikum Wien GmbH
  Kurt Leonhartsberger MSc., Dipl.-Ing. Hubert Fechner MAS MSc.
• IG Windkraft
  Mag. Stefan Moidl und Florian Maringer