Austria

The German PV home storage provider delivered around 1,500 solar batteries globally last month. At around 75%, most systems went to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

European markets: Growth in solar installations returned to European shores in 2017, with some of the usual suspects posting big numbers, and several new players awakening to the possibilities of PV. Here, pv magazine provides an overview of the latest movements on the continent.

The Austrian solar sector has welcomed the new draft plan for an integrated climate and energy strategy and, in particular, the planned “100,000 roofs program”. Greenpeace, however, believes a reorientation of climate policy is urgently needed and that the presented measures are inadequate to reach the Paris climate targets.

Austria’s largest power provider announced a plan to invest around €100 million in solar and €15 million in recharge stations for electric vehicles over the next five years. The company aims at investing mainly in residential and C&I projects.

Around 3,000 incentive applications were filed with the portal in the first five minutes after it was activated. The first-come-first-serve principle, however, will not be applied to determine which developers will have access to the incentive program.

Owners of residential solar PV systems in Austria will receive €0.0791 per kWh for power surplus in 2018.

Starting from next year, the incentive scheme for solar in Austria will change. FITs will be prioritized for self-consumption projects. In addition, starting in March 2018, a nationwide storage incentive prorgam will be launched.

The Austrian Parliament has approved a new renewable energy law. For the first time, storage combined with PV will receive support. The local association Photovoltaic Austria expects a 25% growth for PV in 2018.

A small increase of 2.6 % was recorded in the Central European country last year. The Austrian Photovoltaic Association is still calling for an adjustment of the state´s Green Electricity Act to unleash the limited PV extension.

Although the central European country has a solar market with a stable growth, the residential solar-plus-storage segment is still far behind its strong potential. In 2016, around 500 storage systems combined with PV installations were installed under the incentive scheme in the country.