The Austrian Biomass Association, a network partner of Bioeconomy Austria, recently published the Bioenergy Atlas Austria 2023. The atlas represents the domestic bioenergy industry on maps of the provinces, on theme maps of Austria, and in project reports. In addition, the provinces are compared with each other in terms of their climate and energy strategies, as well as progress in the energy transition. The atlas also includes energy, wood, and biomass flows. In summary:
Sustainable Forest Management
The EU recently increased the target for renewable energy generation in the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) to 42.5% by 2030. Austria ranked fifth-highest in the EU27 for renewable energy share, behind Sweden, Finland, Latvia, and Estonia. These five leading countries demonstrate how the positive combination of bioenergy expansion, forest area expansion, and timber stock build-up works with sustainable, active forest management.
Carinthia is Austria’s renewable energy leader with a share of 58.8%, followed by Burgenland and Salzburg. Bioenergy is primarily used in Austria for heat generation and contributes 41% to the space heating consumption of private households. The Austrian bioenergy industry creates about 24,000 full-time jobs and contributes almost 3.1 billion euros to total sales, making it the largest contributor to total sales among renewable energies.
Growth in bioenergy, massive decline in hydropower
Although more oil was used in 2021 compared to 2020, renewable energy generation increased by 2% in 2021, mainly due to bioenergy. Hydropower, Austria’s most important source of electricity, experienced a massive decline in 2021 and 2022 due to heatwaves, droughts, and low river levels. Austria’s gross domestic energy consumption increased by 5.8% in 2021 compared to the previous year, and greenhouse gas emissions by 4.9%. Austrian greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 were distributed among the sectors of industry and energy, transport, buildings, agriculture, waste management, and fluorinated gases.
Download & Orders
The Bioenergy Atlas Austria 2023 is in DIN A4 format, comprises 180 pages, and is printed in full color. You can order the bound book free of charge by email: office@biomasseverband.at