General Framework

2001 was one of the most important years with regard to the electricity market in Austria. Based on the principles of the Electricity Law, so-called EIWOG 2, the electricity market has been 100% liberalized since 1 October 2001. By fully liberalizing the electricity industry, electricity becomes an article of merchandise. The whole process and the market rules are observed by a new independent regulatory body, the Electricity Control Commission. The following objectives shall be reached through the Electricity Law EIWOG 2:

1. Free customer choice - Customers can choose freely from whom to purchase electricity. The prices of electricity are significantly decreased due to the access of all consumers to the open European electricity market. This significant decrease of electricity prices might be contra-productive to PV market penetration due to the higher costs in comparison with competitive technologies.
2. RES target quotas - The most important parts with regard to market penetration of new renewable energies such as PV, biomass, wind power etc. are the energy political target quotas rising from 1% in 2001 up to 4% in 2007 in two year steps. Here’s a view of the actual electricity market: About 70% of approximately 60 TWh annual electricity consumption is generated by renewable energy sources, almost exclusively from hydro power. This is the highest figure of all European Union member states and mainly caused by Austria’s topographic situation and the historical development of the electricity market. To promote the extension of new RES, legislators of EIWOG 2 fixed the above mentioned target quotas. The share of, at a minimum of 1% or about 600 GWh, couldn’t be reached as of October 1, 2001. The missing share of about 0,4% new plants shall be financially supported via funds which are paid through penalties of network operators with quotas less than the legislative targets.
3. Disclosure of primary energy shares - The law states that consumers’ invoices must describe the portions of primary energy sources from which the delivered electricity has been generated. Traders and suppliers are obliged to ensure that this information is in place. The first disclosure appeared at the end of October 2001.
   The verification system is settlement based and the rules are as follows: i) certificates of origin issued by recognized and chartered certification organizations are accepted, ii) statements concerning the origin of primary energy, officially published in annual business reports and approved by the chartered auditor are accepted and iii) if neither of the above are available then the UCTE-mix applies.
4. Standardized energy supply patterns - Network operators manage the continuous availability of electricity by using standardized energy supply patterns of small and middle sized systems. Most grid-connected PV systems and small hybrid systems match this low power segment with less than 50kW connected load and less than 100 000 kWh/a. The reason for accepting standardized energy patterns lies in the legislative framework for guaranteeing the grid access of Renewables without any discrimination

National Programme

Newcomers to the electricity markets are offering their green products directly to customers. Green electricity is a general tradable good like, e.g. biological food. An increasingly popular mechanism to promote the market introduction of Renewable Systems is Ecolabels. Ecolabels are voluntary instruments based on econonicpolitical grounds for transferring ecological values of generation processes. The aim of such labelling is to enhance market transparency and allow customers to make informed choices among different products and suppliers by guaranteeing the origin of supplied green electricity. Within the certification procedures, certain criteria are checked through independent certification institutes. One criteria which has to be fulfilled for getting the Austrian Ecolabel "Umweltzeichen", is to verify the share of at a minimum of 1% PV within the portfolio of the labelled green electricity. The positive image of solar electricity in the minds of customers led to this jointly defined requirement. So far, only young players on the electricity market have received the Austrian Ecolabel "Umweltzeichen".
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Research, Development and Demonstration

• New solutions for building integration of PV are investigated to reduce the costs and address the building industry by aiming to create a better understanding about possibilities and challenges of high integrated concepts for roofs, facades and other building elements. Another key activity within the solar architecture trend is the construction of so-called “Energy Plus” houses. These futuristic houses are producing more solar electricity from their own BIPV than they consume themselves. To meet various aesthetic demands, artistic contact patterns are designed and optimized on multicrystalline silicon solar cells.
• The stricter the acoustic principles the greater the demand for sound barriers. Higher feed-in tariffs, reduced costs and the synergetic use of obstructed highways lead towards the extended installations of PV sound barriers. The costs of the grid connection are rather low, because the requests for installing sound barriers are coming from citizens in the neighbourhood of the highways, and they need the electricity in their households.
• Organic solar cells based on thin plastic films developed at the University of Linz (Upper Austria) have received increased attention due to their unique properties. These cell types promise more than likely to become the cheapest solar cells of the future. A maximum efficiency of about 2,5% has been achieved through bulk heterojunction cells.

Implementation and Market Development

As in most other countries, off-grid installations were the first economic alternative for PV systems. Small autarkic systems provide electricity to technical systems, or for domestic use in alpine households or mountain huts, far away from the grid. However, this is not exclusive to remote areas, but PV application to urban sites is an increasing option to supply infrastructure systems like parking meters or rail-greasing systems.

With improved integration into the built environment on-grid distributed systems are becoming more and more common place in the public interest. More than two-thirds of the overall installed capacity are grid-connected systems in Austria.

Due to limited space available, grid-connected centralised systems play a minor role and so far, only 140 kW are installed.
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Industry Status

• ISOVOLTA is manufacturing coloured back sheet laminates for PV modules for almost all module manufacturers in the world.
• FRONIUS has been engaged in solar-electronics and is now Europe's second largest producer of inverters for grid connected and stand-alone PV systems. So far, more than 5 000 units have been produced; out of which 90% were exported into other countries.
• Banner Batterien, like Isovolta and Fronius, are important manufacturers of lead-acid batteries for off-grid PV applications

Future Outlook

Financial incentives and voluntary approaches are the basis for a stronger PV market in Austria. Some new regulations in Austria could yield a substantial effect for a lasting development towards a powerful dissemination of PV, even though only in some parts of the country.
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Further reading about Austria

• Austria - Country information