Potential analysis and further aspects of renewable energy sources in Austria

Climate change as well as the growing import dependency - especially of the European Union - afford stringent measures. The new energy strategy of the EU sets challenging goals particularly regarding the future share of renewable energies. Especially the electricity production from renewable energies is of special interest because questions concerning storage and system integration are more difficult than for the heat and biofuel sector. The paper shows the present situation in Austria concerning the electricity production from renewable energies and summarizes the potential situation given in the literature. Special focus is set on the field of biomass and biogas and aside an estimation of the current potential the aspect of feeding biogas in an existing pipeline-system is discussed.