ENERGY
Natural gas from Russia and Norway, crude oil from Russia and Kazakhstan – Austria’s dependency on foreign energy supplies is increasing continuously. Only 5.2% of the crude oil demand and 8.7% of the gas consumption came from domestic sources. Since the closure of the Styrian brown coal mines in 2005, the import dependency for coal has been 100%.
Disregarding biofuels, Austria was largely self-sufficient only when it came to renewable energies. However, the “renewables” only made up 32.7% of the total energy consumption. 78.2% of electricity came from renewable energy sources. Austria last had a minimal export surplus in 2000. Since then, the country has grown into a net importer of electricity. Energy-saving measures are therefore not only useful for reasons of climate protection. They are also necessary in order to decrease Austria‘s energy dependency and thus to counteract the increasing shortage of energy.
58.2% of energy comes from foreign countries (2020)
Dependence on fossil fuel
Consumption doubled in 50 years
Energy consumption in Austria has almost doubled in the past 50 years – both in terms of total consumption (gross domestic consumption/GDC) and final consumption.
The largest increase in GDC since 1970 was seen in wastes, renewable energy sources and gas, while the use of coal decreased. Despite a steady increase in the use of renewable energy sources, the majority of domestic energy usage was still covered by fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas. This is a growing problem, especially with regard to greenhouse gas emissions, but also for the security of supply 90% of the fossil fuels used in Austria were imported.
The final consumption per capita in Austria in 2019 was 3.2 tons of crude oil equivalents (COE) and was thus above the EU average of 2.2 tons COE. Energy consumption fell by 1.9% in agriculture, in the manufacturing sector and in the services sector by 2.9% and for transport by 18.0%, while it rose by 0.1% in private households.
In 2019, the largest share of the GDC in the EU-28 was accounted for by crude oil at 35.5%, followed by natural gas (24.6%) and solid fossil fuels (15.4%). With a share of around 31.9%, the transport sector dominated energy consumption in 2020, followed by the manufacturing sector with a share of around 29.2%.
GDP recessed by 6.7% from 2019 to 2020 - GDC decreased by 7.6%
Final energy consumption in Austria decreased by 7.6% in 2020 compared to 2019
Renewable energy sources like hydro power, wind, and solar power, as well as geothermal power and biomass, have seen a strong upswing in recent years. The advantages of the “renewables”: On one hand, they do not contribute to accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and on the other hand they reduce the dependence on energy imports.
According to the EU directive, the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final energy consumption was 36.5% in 2020; the EU average was 18.9% in 2019. While water and wind are used exclusively to generate electricity, the biogenic energy sources have more versatile uses: In addition to the production of electricity and district heating, they are also used as fuels (bio-diesel) and in households (space heating). Further rates of increase are to be expected above all for biodiesel and bioethanol, since they have to be added to fossil fuels.
In 2020, the share of “renewables” used for transportation was 10.3%, and thus above the taget of 10% for 2020. In 2020, the proportion of electricity from renewable energy sources that can be taken into account according to the EU directive was 78.2% - of which 75.6% came from hydropower. While hydroelectric power has a long tradition in Austria, the use of biomass for electricity generation is a relatively recent development.
The production of district heating from biomass has risen rapidly since 1990. Its share has increased sixfold compared to 2020, from 7.3% to 51.2%. In 2020 there were around 2 400 plants that generated district heat from biomass - and the trend is rising.