Austria on the way to climate neutrality: research as a key!

Austria on the way to climate neutrality: research as a key!

Austria pursues ambitious goals in the energy transition, with the clear endeavor to be climate -neutral by 2040. The Federal Ministry of Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (BMIMI) emphasizes the importance of research and technology in order to successfully design this transformation. Innovation and infrastructure Minister Peter Hanke emphasizes that research and innovation must continue to play a key role despite the currently tense budget situation. Current studies and surveys of the BMIMI are intended to help close evident gaps in infrastructure and economic policy. OTS reports about three important reports to make Austria Future Fit.

These reports include a building report that provides a national overview of the building stock and the technical equipment, market survey energy technologies for the analysis of domestic market actors as well as an energy research survey on the promotion and demonstration of key technologies. It should be emphasized that space heat is two thirds of the energy consumption of households, while hot water is about 15%. According to the estimates, the proportion of renewable energies in the primary energy requirement increases to around 45.9% and the heating requirement in new buildings is on average 29 kWh/m².

on the way to climate neutrality

The transformation of the energy system is a central topic in Austria, as was discussed at a seminar on the energy transition. Industry representatives, including Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Anzengruber from "CEOS for Future", highlighted the most important steps to achieve the national objectives for the energy transition. This includes innovative business and cooperation models as well as internal measures to increase the efficiency of companies. The challenges in the integration of renewable energies are great, but switching to environmentally friendly systems such as heat pumps and district heating is considered inevitable.

renewable energies play an increasingly important role in the economy. The industry has high growth, especially in the areas of photovoltaics, battery and storage technology as well as heat pumps. In the building sector, over 40,000 companies are employed with an annual turnover of 60 billion euros, which contributes more than 5% to gross value added. The sales of renewable energy technologies are estimated to be around 11.4 billion euros for 2024.

Future forecasts and key technologies

The Austrian energy agency has launched the “Our Energy World 2040” project that designs a scenario for a climate -neutral energy system. The models show the need to increase the proportion of renewable energies from 40% to 97% by 2040 and reduce the energy -related greenhouse gas emissions by 96%. These far-reaching changes are to be achieved despite population and economic growth. An essential aspect is cross -sector electrification in heat, mobility and industry. Energyagency.at reports about the future key factors for this transformation.

The future electricity mix scenario provides for a doubling of the electricity generation from 75 TWH to 149 TWh by 2040, whereby photovoltaics 22%, wind power and hydropower should be 33%. It is also assumed that around 38% of the population will heat district heating by 2040. Hydrogen is increasingly being used in areas in which electrification cannot be implemented, while industry will have a significant need for hydrogen, which can partially be produced domestically.

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