Austria reaches a record with 95% renewable energies!

Austria reaches a record with 95% renewable energies!

In 2024, Austria made a remarkable progress in the energy transition. The proportion of renewable energies in the electricity consumption achieved an impressive 95 percent, such as ots.at . This represents an increase compared to 2022 when the proportion was still around 75 percent. Leonore Gewessler, energy spokeswoman for the Greens, described this development as great success for climate protection and the energy independence of Austria.

The increase is mainly thanks to the expansion of photovoltaics (PV) in 2023 and 2024. The Renewable Expansion Act (EAG) and stable subsidies played a crucial role here. Wind and solar energy together contribute around 20 percent to domestic electricity generation.

growing concerns about funding cuts

Despite these positive developments, worn out concerns about the future energy policy of the new federal government. Planned measures provide to delete the sales tax exemption for PV systems and to reduce investment promotion drastically. These changes could make the photovoltaic industry deeply, which calculates with a decrease of 40 percent compared to the previous year.

The Greens therefore call for further investing in the areas of PV, wind power, heating exchange and thermal renovation. A powerful power grid is considered crucial for the long -term success of the energy transition. In order to counter this challenge, the Greens have submitted an application to the Electricity Economic Act in the National Council.

global perspective of renewable energies

The importance of renewable energies goes beyond national borders. At the global level, renewable energies fuel in 2021 almost 19 percent of the final energy consumption, such as destatis.de Hydropower in particular played a major role in countries such as Sweden (58 percent), Brazil (47 percent) and Canada (24 percent).

The global electricity generation from renewable energies amounted to 9,029 terawatt hours (TWH) in 2023, which corresponds to an increase of 5 percent compared to the previous year. The majority of this production comes from hydropower (47 percent), followed by wind energy (26 percent) and solar energy (18 percent). Between 2010 and 2023, the global installed performance in the area of solar energy from 40 gigawatts at 1,610 gigawatt has almost increased.

summarized it is shown that developments in Austria are in the context of a global trend that is characterized by an increasing proportion of renewable energies. A sustainable energy policy that the Greens strive for in Austria is seen as an essential key to combating climate change and securing energy supply. Further information about the global status of renewable energies is available on the website of the PV Austria