Local solar PV association Photovoltaic Austria Federal Association (PV Austria) says the country installed over 1 GW of new solar PV capacity in 2022, making it the 1st ever year to achieve this milestone, that now takes its cumulative installed PV capacity to 3.79 GW.
Out of the newly added capacity last year, Upper Austria installed the maximum of 243 MW, followed by 234 MW in Lower Austria and 147 MW in Styria. Lowest deployments were reported by Vorarlberg with 28 MW, Burgenland with 39 MW and Slazburg with 40 MW.
On cumulative basis, it means solar power now accounts for 6.6% of the national electricity demand.
However, PV Austria says that despite the 1.009 GW added in 2022 the country is far off the mark from its 13 GW target to be achieved by 2030. For this it needs to install at least 1.2 GW annually between 2023 and 2030. Further up, for the 50 GW target to be achieved for 2040 to meet its climate neutrality aim, Austria will need to install a minimum of 2.6 GW annually between 2023 and 2040.
"The 'low-hanging fruits' are still being harvested – all plants that don't have serious problems with the permit are built," said Chairman of the Board of PV Austria, Herbert Pair. "We are from the goals 2030 still far away, but forget that for 2040 even clearer effort is required."
During the period, the association says Austria saw system prices going up by 10% and are currently at the level these were 8 years back. It continues to remain a subsidy-driven market as around 90% of the installed PV and PV+storage systems were funded by the government.
In 2021, Austria added 740 MW PV reflecting an annual improvement of 117% from 341 MW installed in 2020 (see Austria Added 740 MW New Solar In 2021).