Austria, PV technology status and prospects - Contribution to the Annual report 2002

Austria
PV technology status and prospects
Dipl.-Ing. Hubert Fechner, Arsenal Research

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General Framework

Fig. 1 - Austria’s largest PV-installation: 235 kWp in Werfenweng, Salzburg, Neue Energie Technik.

Three main issues in Austria’s energy scene are favoring the increased use of photovoltaics:

The first important issue is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, which is the main target of the environmental policy following the commitments of the Kyoto Conference. There, Austria committed to reduce 13 % of its greenhouse gas emissions from today’s 7,6 tons per capita and year towards around 6,6 tons per capita and year in 2010. However, the Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the decisions regarding the appropriate reduction measures and evaluation procedures are still in discussion within the Austrian government. Nevertheless, it is expected that photovoltaics can contribute to reach the targets in the long term.
The liberalization of the electricity market since October 1st 2001 is the second major issue regarding PV. Based on the principles of the electricity law so called “EIWOG 2” the electricity market has been 100 % liberalized. With the opening of the markets, electricity has become an article of merchandise. The whole process and the market rules are observed by a new independent regulatory body, the Electricity Control Commission.
Finally, target quotas for electricity from so called “New Renewable Energy Sources” like PV, biomass, wind power are another important part regarding the market penetration of RES. These political target quotas will be rising from 1 % in 2001 up to 4 % in 2007, in two years steps.

Today about 70 % of Austria’s annual electricity consumption is generated from renewable energy sources, almost exclusively from large hydro power plants. This is the highest figure of all European Union member states and mainly due to Austria’s topographic situation and the historical development of the electricity market.

Furthermore, 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: Certificates of origin of primary energy are to be issued by recognized and chartered certification organizations. Statements concerning the origin, officially published in annual business reports and approved by the chartered auditor are accepted as well. If neither of the above are available then the UCTE-mix applies.
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National Programme

Fig. 2 - Cable-car station at the Kriegerhorn, Lech am Arlberg, 2 100 m above sea level, semitransparent modules 9,5 kWp, ATB.

There is no national programme dedicated to the promotion of PV in Austria, but several regulations are defining the framework for the promotion of RES.

Most important are the principles of the electricity law “ElWOG 2” which have gone into force via federal decrees in each of the nine regions in 2001. The regional governments had to determine the different types of promotion strategies and incentives that are used. These circumstances led to a very diverse situation with very ambitious incentives in some regions and made it difficult for investors and planners to keep an overview about all the regulations. The feed-in tariffs, for example, varied between 0,10 and 0,74 EUR/kWh, depending on the region, on the system size as well as on seasonal and day/night aspects.

To harmonize these situations, a special new law for Green Electricity called “Ökostromgesetz” was adopted by the federal government regulating issues concerning the electricity supply from RES on the national level.

The regulation, becoming effective at the beginning of 2003, will move the competencies from the regional governments to the federal government and define preferential feed-in tariffs for RES that have to be paid by the distribution network operators.

For PV, there will be one nationwide tariff of 0,60 EUR/kWh for installations up to 20 kWp and 0,47 EUR/kWh for larger systems. The extra costs for the network operators will be compensated by an additional supplement on the customer invoices.

Furthermore, a limit of 15 MWp total installed capacity is stated in the law, up to which the high tariffs will be paid. Compared to the installed capacity of 9 MW at the end of 2002, and including the applications for new PV installations the limit is expected to be reached already in the first months of 2003. This makes the feed-in tariff system almost ineffectively and threatens the further deployment of PV by generating uncertainty among investors and installers of PV systems. With the “ElWOG 2”, Green Electricity has become a general tradable good, and several new companies are offering their green products directly to the customers. Another increasing popular mechanism to promote the market introduction of Renewable Systems are Ecolabels. Ecolabels are voluntary Instruments based on economic-political grounds for transferring ecological values of generation processes.

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 minimum 1 % PV within the portfolio of the labeled green electricity. The positive image of solar electricity in the mind of the customers led to this jointly defined requirement.
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Research, Development and Demonstration

Austrian PV research activities are mostly focussed on national and international project base. The involved research organizations and companies are participating in various National and European projects as well as in different tasks of the IEA-PVPS Programme. The RTD development and approach is widespread located and decentralized oriented.

Some principal descriptions of these projects highlight the general RTD trend of photovoltaics in Austria:

Organic Solar Cells based on thin plastic films have received increased attention due to their unique properties. These cell types are probably promising to become the cheapest solar cell in future. A maximum efficiency of about 2,5 % has been achieved through the bulk hetero-junction cells.
Encapsulation of solar cells, the development of new contact pattern for crystalline cells and colored cells are investigated at the academic institutes.
New concepts for PV-inverters and various aspects of grid-interconnection, not exclusively related to PV but more to Distributed Generation from RES in general, are the main focus of several EU financed projects, which are jointly carried out by research institutions, industry and utilities.
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 chances and challenges of high integrated concepts for roofs, facades and other building elements.

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Implementation and Market Development

Fig. 3 - PV capacity installed in Austria between 1989 and 2002. [source: Faninger, PV market in Austria]

With an enormous increase of more than 45 % in 2002 installed PV power capacity reached roughly 9 MW by the end of the year. Between 1995 and 2002, the mean growth of the total capacity was more than 30 % per year. Until the end of 1996, the off-grid sector dominated the Austrian PV market. However from 1997 the majority of new systems were grid-connected according to the overall trend in the IEA PVPS reporting countries.

As in most of the 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; but not exclusively in remote areas. Also on urban sites, PV is an increasing option to supply infrastructure systems like parking meters or rail-greasing systems.

With improved integration into the built environment grid-connected distributed systems are becoming more and more a common place in public’s interest. More than 2/3 of the overall installed capacity are grid-connected systems in Austria. Due to limited space available, grid-connected centralized systems play a minor role and so far only 400 kWp are installed.
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Industry Status

An important newcomer entered the PV market in 2002: PVT Austria, the first manufacturer of PV modules in Austria opened its production line for standard and semi-transparent crystalline silicon panels.

Concerning balance of system components for PV systems there are several other manufacturers involved:

FRONIUS, a power electronics company has been engaged in solar-electronics for many years and is now Europe’s second largest producer of inverters for grid connected and stand alone PV systems. In 2002, they started selling their new IG series inverters. More than 90 % of the production are exported into other countries.
ISOVOLTA is manufacturing colored back sheet laminates for PV modules for almost all module manufacturers in the world.
BANNER BATTERIES is an important manufacturer of lead-acid batteries for off-grid PV applications.

A new Quality Label for PV installers will be issued by the Austrian Photovoltaic Association. Certified planners and installers are obliged to use products and components certified to the relevant standards as well as to have a quality assurance system.
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Future Outlook

Fig. 4 - Refurbished PV façade at the Wels trade fair center, 17,24 kWp, stromaufwaerts GmbH.

The favorable feed-in tariffs paid in some federal states and the new green-electricity law “Ökostromgesetz” regulating the feed-in tariffs for electricity from renewable energy sources on a national level already led to an enormous boom in applications for new PV installations. Due to that, the limit of 15 MW total installed capacity, up to which new PV installations are supported by the feed-in tariffs, will be already reached in the first quarter of 2003. This fact creates the paradox situation that the law will be obsolete - at least for PV –before it really has become effective. It remains to be seen, whether the PV lobby is able to persuade the Austrian government to abolish the narrow restrictions and pave the way for a widespread dissemination of PV in the country.

PV research and development will be more and more concentrated on international projects and networks, following the dynamic know-how and learning process of the worldwide PV development progress.

With the increasing number of applications and PV systems installed, a demand on training and education services will emerge. The more the industry and research organizations contribute to the application of PV the more the aspect of vocational schools and universities will automatically supported. It is urgently necessary to develop up-to-date tutorials for growing interest groups in Austria.