Austria

German renewables developer BayWa r.e. has finished building four new pilot agrivoltaic projects in the Netherlands, Austria, and Germany. They combine solar with fruit cultivation.

Austria joined the gigawatt club last year after deploying more than 1,000 MW of solar for the first time. It has now reached more than 4.2 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity.

Austrian module manufacturer Energetica has restarted production, following its acquisition by IRMA Power.

Austria could become a gigawatt market for the first time in 2022. Its cumulative solar capacity is potentially set to hit 4 GW, up from 2.78 GW at the end of 2021. The country is expected to install more than 1 GW of solar every year until 2030.

Aerocompact’s new CompactFLAT GS mounting structure can be installed 40 cm above rooftop surfaces, with tilt angles of 10 and 15 degrees. The company says the product is ideal for bifacial solar arrays and green rooftops.

Domestic hot water, with a heating system powered exclusively by DC solar power, has now covered the needs of an apartment building in Linz, Austria, for a period of a year. The 14 residential units are each connected to their own 1.36 KW solar arrays.

Austria’s cumulative installed PV capacity has now surpassed 2.78 GW.

Nickelsdorf, a small town in eastern Austria, has started building a 120 MW solar project. Upon completion, it will be the nation’s largest solar park.

The Austrian authorities allocated €40 million ($42.8 million) in the next round of the nation’s solar-plus-storage rebate scheme, across 11,000 projects. Rebates are available for PV installations up to 10 kW in size.

An international research team has proposed the use of water from high-altitude rivers and regenerative braking in electric trucks to store electricity for reuse in power networks, or for transport purposes.