Austria's energy future: Massive investments in battery storage necessary!

Austria's energy future: Massive investments in battery storage necessary!

Austria faces a crucial challenge on the way to achieving its climate goals. According to a current study by Photovoltaic Austria, which was created in cooperation with Austrian Power Grid (APG), the TU Graz and D-Fine, the need for battery storage will increase drastically by 2040. The aim is to achieve 100 % renewable energy by 2040, while the electricity requirement will double to 125 terawatt hours (TWH) by then. This focuses on the need for massive investments in battery storage in order to successfully design the energy transition, such as ÖKO News reports.

The forecasts show that the need for flexibility that is required for the time shift of energy will be changed to 41 TWh by 2040. In this context, the necessary battery storage performance is estimated at 8.7 gigawatts (GW), which meets a despair compared to the current requirements. Of these, 6.0 GW should be provided as a small memory for households and businesses and 2.7 GW as a large memory. The largest shares in the memory requirement are eliminated with 28 %in Lower Austria, followed by Upper Austria (19 %) and Styria (17 %).

battery memory as a key to the energy transition

The increasing demand for battery storage is considered absolutely necessary in order to buffer the fluctuating generation of electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. In order to force the expansion of these memory, PV Austria demands decisive political measures. This includes flexible network tariffs, the removal of double loads by network fees and the expansion of existing grants for photovoltaic systems to memory with fixed funding rates. In addition, faster and uniform approval procedures are required to accelerate the implementation of memory projects, as the ots emphasizes.

In a broad discourse on the climatic challenges, climate protection officers in Lower Austria urge a "wind solar turbo". This is considered necessary in order to meet the increasing climate demands. Protests by young climate protectors illustrate the efforts to draw more attention to these topics. Slogans like "People, not profit!" and statements against the conventional "concrete policy" illustrate urgency and the need for action in the current climate debate, as on noen.at is.

The challenge of promoting the energy storage infrastructure and at the same time achieving the goal of climate neutrality by 2040 not only requires technological innovations, but also a clear political will to implement the necessary measures. Experts warn of the danger of climate cicit, should Austria not actively act and set the course for the energy transition correctly.