Projected Costs of Generating Electricity - OECD Nuclear Energy ...

The highest investment cost arises for photovoltaic (although some new experiences indicate a lower
cost of about 3 500 €/kW) and for biomass. For wind power, onshore, the investment cost is much lower
than for the other renewables.
The operation costs are highest for biomass (both solid and gaseous). Most critical are the fuel costs;
for some plants the fuel costs alone contribute more than 5 €¢/kWh. Another important issue is the electricity
consumption for the operation of the plant itself and for the fuel preparation. For some plants in
operation, it is more than 15% of the electricity generation cost.
The full load hours per year (calculated as produced electricity divided by the rated capacity of the
plant) are the highest with plants that use storageable fuels. The full load hours are considerable lower for
wind power (on shore) and for photovoltaic (see Figure 4).
Hours/year
9 000
8 000
7 000
6 000
5 000
4 000
3 000
2 000
1 000
0
Biomass solid
Figure 4 – Full load operating hours per year (thousands)
Biomass liquid
Fermentation gas
Wind power
Annual maximum
Photovoltaic
Landfill gas
Support schemes in Austria focused on EU-Targets
Sewer gas
Geothermal
High value
Low value
Gas power
After the first steps of liberalising the internal European electricity market, with little or no focus on
renewables, the European Union increasingly has moved to support generating electricity from
Renewable Energy Sources (RES).
The “White Paper on Renewable Sources of Energy” was one of the first contributions to support the
market for RES and the Directive 2001/77/EC (RES-E Directive, 27 September 2001) on the promotion
of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market was one of the
most important steps.
With the adoption of the RES-E Directive, the European Union set the fundamental legislative basis
for the actual support schemes in Europe and set indicative targets for each Member State to reach in 2010
(see Figure 5). The 78% target for Austria is related to an electricity consumption of 56.1 TWh. The real
electricity consumption in the year 2010 will be higher. Because hydro power has not much additional
potential in Austria, new investments into RES-E probably cannot cover the expected increase of electricity
demand (about 1.6% per year).
In 2003, the trends of RES-E developments in Austria were as follows:
● Wind power: The expansion of installed wind power plants is exceeding expectations. By the end
of 2004 the installed capacity was about 600 MW, reflecting at least 2.5% of the intended 4% share
of “new” renewables in 2008. Additionally, about 200 MW wind power were commissioned and will
be invested till June 2006.
96