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Austria’s energy transition ends the era of coal power

5-20, 2020 / By MUST Power

Austria ’s largest power supplier, Vibon, has announced that it has shut down a coal power plant in Merach, Styria, southeastern Austria. According to the Austrian National Radio, in the past 15 years, many coal power plants in Austria have been shut down due to aging equipment and other reasons. This coal power plant and the previously shut down coal power plant in Duenrol in Lower Austria are The last coal power plant in Austria. Austrian Minister of Environment and Infrastructure Leonor Gwesler pointed out that this is a historic moment and marks a further step for Austria to end the era of coal-fired power and to stop using fossil fuels for power supply by 2030. Wolfgang Anzenruber, CEO of Wibon, said that in the past 34 years, this coal-fired power plant has supplied electricity to nearby Graz, the capital of Styria. Weibang plans to turn Merah into a future energy technology innovation center. At present, the local pilot plant for hydrogen fuel cells has been built, and in the future may be involved in hydrogen fuel cell production.

The Austrian energy group EVN, which operates the Duenrol coal power plant, plans to invest 20 million euros to build Duenrol into an innovative energy base, further use the sewage sludge in Lower Austria to generate heat, and install large-scale solar photovoltaic equipment. Create more local employment opportunities in the energy sector. Most of Austria ’s land area is mountainous, and fossil fuel reserves such as coal, oil and gas are not abundant. At present, there are more than 10 oil or natural gas power plants in Austria, and their power supply accounts for about 1/4 of the national total. It also costs 10 billion euros per year to import coal, oil and natural gas. The Austrian government plans to fully achieve clean energy power supply by 2030. Gwesler said that this is not only for protecting the environment, but also for Austria’s economic autonomy. The Austrian government has issued a series of measures to promote energy transformation: formulate a special climate and energy development strategy “2030 task”, which has set a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 36% by 2030 compared with 2005; by 2030, renewable energy in The proportion of final energy consumption will increase to 45% -50% and so on. Achieving the “2030 mission” is the first step in Austria ’s long-term strategy for environmental protection and energy in 2050. The central goal of this long-term strategy is to achieve “carbon neutrality” by 2050 and completely eliminate fossil energy.

In 2007, the Austrian government set up a climate and energy fund with the goal of reforming the energy system. It can spend up to 120 million euros a year, and has invested more than 1 billion euros to support more than 120,000 innovative R & D projects. Austria ’s new “Renewable Energy Law” will take effect in 2021 and will help promote the construction of a sustainable, safe, innovative and competitive energy system in Austria. During Austria ’s presidency of the EU in the second half of 2018, it pushed the EU to adopt a decision to abolish coal subsidies for coal-fired power plants in all member states from 2025.