Climate protection

The long road to energy independence in 2050

Vorarlberg is a land of hydropower,

(Bild: Mathis Fotografie)

although photovoltaics is also becoming increasingly important.

(Bild: Mathis Fotografie)

Although Vorarlberg has achieved initial successes on the road to energy autonomy, there is still a lot to do. However, the positive development in recent years gives us hope.  

Last week, the Vorarlberg energy scene met in Dornbirn to discuss the current status of energy consumption and CO₂ emissions as well as general trends. The positive news first: the direction is right. In Europe and Austria, energy demand is beginning to fall, while the expansion of renewable energy sources is progressing steadily. This is having an impact on the CO₂ balance: Emissions in Austria have fallen significantly in recent years, with a decrease of five percent from 2022 to 2023 alone.

Significant decreases in Vorarlberg too
Vorarlberg has also reduced its emissions, as the recently presented monitoring report shows: the decrease from 2021 to 2022 was five percent, and the figures for 2023, which are not yet complete, suggest a further reduction of the same magnitude. Despite the fact that the past few winters have been very mild and economic growth has lost momentum, the measures taken appear to be bearing fruit. Nevertheless, there are still many things that need to be tweaked in order to achieve the targets set, emphasizes Daniel Zadra (Greens), Provincial Councillor for Energy.

 This applies in particular to the expansion of renewables: "Our asset is hydropower, but we need to leverage all potential and also focus on solar, wind and geothermal energy." In addition to the continuous reduction of energy consumption, electricity from renewable sources will be the main pillar of energy autonomy. And according to Christian Vögel, Head of the Energy and Climate Protection Department, things are looking quite good in this respect: by 2023, Vorarlberg will be almost completely supplied with renewable electricity, thanks to good yields from hydropower plants, but also thanks to the massive expansion of photovoltaics of 100 megawatt peak (three times the energy autonomy target for 2030).

Storing electricity is a major challenge
This year is also shaping up to be a strong hydropower year with a high level of self-sufficiency. This also confirms this: The course towards energy autonomy 2050 is the right one, as one of the three interim targets by 2030 ("Energy Autonomy+ 2030") states that 100 percent of the electricity supply in Vorarlberg should be covered by renewable sources. Generating green electricity is one thing, storing it is another. Electricity production in Vorarlberg comes primarily from hydropower - and with extremely strong growth from solar energy.

Both production sources mainly supply electricity in summer, while in winter electricity still has to be imported due to the increasing demand for electricity from e-mobility and heat pumps. In a comprehensive study, the province of Tyrol looked at how this so-called "winter electricity gap" can be closed. The key finding: although it would be possible to achieve self-sufficiency in a "normal" year by adding extensive capacity for seasonal electricity storage (for example in the form of synthetic natural gas), it is much more economical to import electricity when it is generated cheaply abroad and then tap into our own storage facilities when the electricity would have to be purchased at a high price.

Supra-regional, European networking
This insight can basically also be applied to Vorarlberg, especially as the business model of Illwerke-VKW is designed to sell expensive peak-load electricity via pumped storage power plants - the water is then pumped back into the storage facilities with cheap "everyday electricity". To ensure that one supply cog actually meshes with the other, there is no way around even stronger supra-regional, European networking.