Towards sustainable development in Austria: renewable energy contributions

Besides energy conservation, theexploration of renewable energy sources, inparticular biomass and solar energy, arecentral aspects of the Austrian energypolicy, regarded as an optimal option forachieving CO₂-emission reductionobjectives.The market penetration of RenewableEnergy Technologies in the last twentyyears was supported by the AustrianEnergy Research Programme. The result ofsuccessful developments of biomass heating,solar thermal, solar electrical and windenergy technologies is the key for themarket development of these renewableenergy technologies.With the market penetration of renewableenergy technologies new business areas wereestablished and employment created.Today, some renewable energy technologiesin Austria have reached economiccompetitiveness. Some technologies notreached commercialisation, and need moredevelopment to improve efficiency,reliability and cost to become commercial.This would include material and systemdevelopment, pilot plants or fieldexperiments to clarify technical problems,and demonstration plants to illustrateperformance capabilities and to clarifyproblems for commercialisation.