Austria’s Largest State Gets 100% of Its Electricity from Renewables

As countries around the world look for eco-friendly and clean energy solutions, one country is leading the way on getting its energy from renewable sources: Austria. Austria is part of the European Union (EU). In recent years, the EU has tasked member nations to reduce their reliance upon fossil fuels and develop alternative, eco-friendly, and renewable energy solutions.

Currently the entire country is receiving 70% of its electricity from such sources, like hydropower, wind power, biomass power, and solar power, with Lower Austria generating 100% of its electricity from all renewable and eco-friendly sources. Lower Austria produces 63% of its electricity from hydropower, 26% from wind power, 9% from biomass power, and 2% from solar power.

One of the reasons Austria is able to produce a large portion of their electricity needs from eco-friendly solutions is, in part, largely due to the Danube River. This river flows through Lower Austria and 9 other countries. The water flowing through the river moves at a fast rate and makes it an ideal electricity generator. In addition, Austria has mountainous areas where the river flows down through several very steep slopes, further increasing the speed of the water flow and increasing electricity production output.

Lower Austria is home to the county’s capital city Vienna and, along with the city’s population, the state currently has a population of 1.6 million people. All 1.6 million people are getting the electricity to charge their portable devices and power their lights, electronics, and other electronic products all from renewable and clean energy sources. Lower Austria no longer relies upon fossil fuels to generate electricity.

Austria currently leads other EU nations in the ability to generate the county’s electricity needs using renewable sources. It is ahead of such countries as Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, and Latvia, which all have ambitious goals of developing environmentally friendly and renewable energy sources. For instance, Sweden has the goal to become the first country in the world to be completely fossil fuel free, and Denmark recently started sharing excess electricity created through its extensive wind power network.

The EU is encouraging member nations to reach an ambitious goal of producing at least 20% of their total energy, not just electricity production, by 2020. In terms of Austria’s total energy production, it is already producing about a third of its total energy needs from renewable sources. Austria is not the only nation already exceeding the EU’s goal. In Norway, the country is already producing two-thirds of its total energy from renewable sources, and has been since 2013. Other EU nations are already well above the 20% goal, including Sweden (over 50%), Denmark (over 27%), Finland (almost 37%), and Latvia (over 37%).

It is hopeful that the efforts being put forth by the EU nations will be implemented in other countries, as new advances in science and technology allow us to improve upon current clean energy solutions, by documenting and sharing those advances in research notebooks, like those available from Scientific Notebook Company. Call us today at 800-537-3028.