The Energy Regulation and Markets Review - Stikeman Elliott

Austria
policy for the next 10 years and calls for a rapid but sustainable expansion of energy
generation from renewable resources. Based on that strategy, the national renewable
energy action plan (‘the NREAP’) was drawn up, which, under the Renewable Energy
Directive, had to be notified to the European Commission by June 2010. The NREAP
aims at the increase in energy generation from hydropower, wind power, biomass and
solar sources. Moreover, the NREAP states that wind power, biomass and solar sources
will benefit from the green electricity promotion scheme.
Legal provisions concerning renewable energy can be found in the ElWOG
and the Green Electricity Act. In compliance with the New EU Electricity Directive,
the ElWOG stipulates that, in case of grid capacity shortfalls linked to the necessity of
dispatching generation installations, the TSOs have to give priority to installations using
renewable energy resources.
In July 2011 a new Green Electricity Act (‘GEA’) was adopted in order to
implement the targets of the AES and the NREAP. Contrary to several other EU Member
States Austria strengthened the support scheme by the new GEA 2011. It introduces,
among other issues, a strong increase of the feed-in tariff for energy generated by wind
parks located in Austria (for further details on the extended support scheme see Section
VI, infra). The new Cogeneration Act contains provisions on the promotion of combined
heat and power plants. This promotion regime was formerly part of the GEA. However,
according to the ElWOG and the GEA, there are no obligations or commercial incentives
for TSOs to invest in additional capacity to service renewable energy plants.
ii Energy efficiency and conservation
A strong increase in energy efficiency is a key part of the AES. To this end the AES
defines measures in the following action fields: reduction of the heat and cooling
demand in buildings, reduction of electricity consumption in private households and
commercial facilities, better use of industrial waste heat and a more efficient mobility.
In 2020 the final energy consumption in Austria should be 1100PJ, which corresponds
to consumption in the year 2005. A draft Federal Energy Efficiency Act will shortly be
presented for public consultation, which could contain several measures to raise energy
efficiency, in particular in commercial facilities.
Also, the federal states have set up energy-efficiency programmes mainly consisting
of targeted funding and monetary support schemes; there are also binding requirements,
such as a mandatory energy audits for certain commercial activities.
iii Technological developments
Clean energy technology accounts for around 50 per cent of the additional turnover
generated by the Austrian environmental technology industry since 2003. The most
important technologies are cogeneration installations, revamping of existing installations,
biomass and hydropower. 3
3 See Austrian Institute for Econonomic Research, Austrian Environmental Technology
Industry (2009), www.energieklima.at/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Zahlen_Daten/0908_
Umwelttechnikstudie.pdf.
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