Austria will need to install a gigawatt of wind capacity a year from 2025 in order to achieve the country’s 2030 decarbonisation targets.
Last year, 22 wind projects with a capacity of 500MW received support under the Renewable Energy Expansion Act (EAG).
A further 300 wind turbines with a capacity of 2000MW have already been approved or are currently in the approval process.
“To achieve the targets, however, 150 wind turbines totalling 1000MW will need to be installed annually” said Stefan Moidl, Managing Director of IG Windkraft.
He added: “These could provide work for 28,600 people on the wind turbine construction sites by 2030 and trigger €10bn in investments.”
In order to achieve the goal of a power supply with 100% renewable energy, new areas, accelerated approval procedures and more staff in the authorities in the federal states are still needed, said Fritz Herzog, chairman of IG Windkraft.
He said: “An active role is finally needed by the federal states.
“Continuing as before, on a low backburner, is simply not enough.”
After an expected very modest net expansion this year of only 13 turbines with a wind power capacity of 104MW, the expansion in 2025 will be four times as high.
It is expected that around 80 wind turbines with more than 400MW will be erected in 2025.
“It is gratifying that we now have a stable and functioning system with the Renewable Energy Expansion Act.
“Three years without a subsidy system were not very helpful for the expansion of wind power and have led to this year’s slump,” said Moidl.
The first wind farm to be built under the EAG regime is the Silbersberg wind farm in Styria.
After five years of planning, it will be built in record time of just one year.
“Styria has the best wind farm zoning in Austria, because it also allows the implementation of projects outside the priority zones,” said Michael Hainzl, Managing Director of Windheimat.
He added: “However, in order for the implementation of the projects to take place more quickly, a more aggressive designation of new priority zones is needed.
“Here, the wind industry is already waiting for the revision of the wind sectoral programme.
The plan is to sell the electricity produced by the Silbersberg wind farm to regional industrial companies in order to support their efforts to achieve climate targets.”
The electricity from the Hochpurschtling and Stanglalm wind farms are already being marketed to Stahl Donawitz.