Decarbonization of the Austrian District Heating Systems

One of the main climate goals of the current Austrian government is to reach carbon neutrality by 2040[1]. The renewable share in DH is currently at 48.4%, of which the vast majority is biomass. Further on, waste incineration supplies 7.1% of the heat[2],[3]. This large share of biomass is mainly due to more than 2,400 small biomass bases rural DH networks[4]. Besides this, there are some larger DH networks in all major urban areas, i.e. Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Klagenfurt, mainly based on combined heat and power plants (CHP) using natural gas.

[1] https://www.bundeskanzleramt.gv.at/bundeskanzleramt/die-bundesregierung/regierungsdokumente.html

[2] https://www.bmk.gv.at/dam/jcr:f0bdbaa4-59f2-4bde-9af9-e139f9568769/Energie_in_OE_2020_ua.pdf.

[3] https://www.gaswaerme.at/media/medialibrary/2020/08/zasp20_hi.pdf

[4] https://www.biomasseverband.at/wp-content/uploads/Bioenergie-Atlas-Oesterreich-2019.pdf

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