Abstract
Austria aims to meet 100% of its electricity demand from domestic renewable sources by 2030 which means, that an additional 27 TWh/a of renewable electricity generation are required, thereof 11 TWh/a from photovoltaic. While some federal states and municipalities released a solar rooftop cadastre, there is lacking knowledge on the estimation of the potential of both, ground mounted installations and rooftop modules, on a national level with a high spatial resolution. As a first, in this work data on agricultural land-use is combined with highly resolved data on buildings on a national level. Our results show significant differences between urban and rural areas, as well as between the Alpine regions and the Prealpine- and Easter Plain areas. Rooftop potential concentrates in the big urban areas, but also in densely populated areas in Lower- and Upper Austria, Styria and the Rhine valley of Vorarlberg. The ground mounted photovoltaic potential is highest in Eastern Austria. This potential is geographically consistent with the demand and allows for a production close to the consumer. In theory, the goal of meeting 11 TWh/a in 2030 can be achieved solely with the rooftop PV potential. However, considering the necessary installation efforts, the associated costs of small and dispersed production units and finally the inherent uncertainty with respect to the willingness of tens of thousands of individual households to install PV systems, installing the necessary solar PV on buildings alone is constrained.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilAmong available renewable electricity generation technologies, solar photovoltaics (PV) is currently the fastest growing power generating technology [1]
We address three research gaps: (i) we conduct the first analysis of rooftop and ground mounted PV potentials conjointly, for the whole of Austria at very high spatial resolution and put it into the context of current policy goals, to address the competition between the two and to support the design of expansion scenarios in Austria
Mainly pastures are available for ground mounted PV, and despite the fact that large parts of these areas cannot be considered due to steep slopes or high altitudes they represent a very promising environment as they yield a high solar irradiation potential [51], the high altitude provides a better performance of PV panels because of lower operation temperatures, less fog and higher snow-reflection rates [52] and could attenuate seasonality
Summary
Introduction published maps and institutional affilAmong available renewable electricity generation technologies, solar photovoltaics (PV) is currently the fastest growing power generating technology [1]. The European Union set the goal to meet more than 30 % of its final energy consumption from renewable sources by 2030 [2]. Austria aims to generate 100 % of electricity consumption from domestic renewable sources by 2030. According to the Austrian Government this leads to an additional demand for renewable electricity generation of 27 TWh/a, where. The required rapid development of renewable energy in general, and PV in particular, shall be boosted by the Erneuerbare Ausbau Gesetz (Renewable Expansion Act) [5], which is expected to be ratified within 2021. The government foresees that about 4 TWh/a can be expected from rooftop installations, another 1 TWh/a from traffic areas and parking spaces, another 0.3 TWh/a from installations on landfill iations
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