Austria installed 1.4 GW of new PV capacity from January to September 2024, with around 400 MW added in the third quarter alone.
According to data from E-Control, the national energy regulator, Austria installed 399 MW of new solar capacity in the third quarter of 2024. This data, collected from 16 major grid operators covering approximately 85% of the Austrian electricity grid, shows strong deployment but a slight decline compared to the growth rate in the first half of 2024.
E-Control said 20,929 new PV systems were installed in the third quarter, bringing year-to-date capacity expansion to over 1.4 GW – exceeding the annual target of 1.1 GW set out in the Renewable Energy Expansion Act (EAG). The EAG aims for 11 TWh photovoltaic capacity by 2030, with the long-term goal of 100% renewable electricity generation.
Although requests for new systems slowed somewhat in the third quarter, they remained high, with nearly 21,000 new requests plus 6,451 submissions for small-scale plug-in solar devices. Although this figure is slightly below the peak of the second quarter, by 2023 it will almost double that of the third quarter.
Most new capacity came from rooftop installations, with 86% of requests for systems ranging from 0.8 kW to 20 kW. Medium-sized systems between 20 kW and 250 kW made up 12%, while larger systems over 250 kW accounted for only 1.53% of applications. In addition, 22 applications have been submitted for projects ranging from 5 MW to 35 MW.
The highest number of applications in the third quarter came from Lower and Upper Austria, followed by Styria, which reported more than 5,000 applications each. Burgenland and Vorarlberg registered the fewest applications, less than 1,000 each.
In 2023, Austria installed approximately 134,000 PV systems, with a total capacity of 2.6 GW, bringing the cumulative total to approximately 390,000 PV systems with a capacity of 6.4 GW by the end of the year. Solar energy now supplies about 12% of the country’s electricity demand.
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