Climate targets

Vienna needs PV systems as large as the city center

Mayor Michael Ludwig celebrated the early achievement of Vienna's solar power targets with Deputy Mayor Bettina Emmerling and Climate Councillor Jürgen Czernohorszky.

(Bild: Urbantschitsch Mario)

Vienna is to supply three times as much solar power as it does today in five years' time. To achieve this, new PV areas the size of two soccer pitches are needed every week. However, the private sector in particular is still lagging behind compared to other federal states.

Mayor Michael Ludwig is satisfied: The city's self-imposed energy-saving target of 2030 has now already been achieved, and this year's final target of 250 megawatt peak (MWp) of solar power - equivalent to the electricity requirements of around 72,000 households - has also already been reached. Climate City Councillor Jürgen Czernohorszky also said proudly: "When the city has something to say about solar power, two things are certain: that there will be successes to report - and that the weather will be bad.

Huge new PV installation areas needed
However, the new targets are even more ambitious: by 2030, 800 MWp of solar power is to be generated in Vienna, i.e. more than three times as much. To achieve the targets, the "post-fossil turbo must be ignited", admitted Climate City Councillor Jürgen Czernohorszky: This will require new PV systems the size of two soccer pitches every week until 2030 - in total more than the area of the entire city center.

In the view of Mayor Michael Ludwig, the solar panels on the roof of the listed Happel Stadium prove that PV systems are also compatible with the cityscape and monument protection.

(Bild: Votava/Stadt Wien)

However, Vienna is lagging behind other federal states, especially when it comes to private PV systems. Vienna currently generates so much solar power that it would be enough for around seven percent of households. In reality, however, far fewer households are supplied with solar power, as the PV systems on public buildings mainly feed their electricity into these buildings. By way of comparison, the small municipality of St. Stefan-Afiesl in Upper Austria already covers one third of its electricity consumption with self-generated solar power.

Multi-storey residential buildings as a problem child
The main problem in Vienna is multi-storey housing. Last year, 3,500 applications for subsidies were submitted, which is a five-fold increase compared to the previous year. However, only 400 of these applications were for multi-storey housing. Czernohorszky denied that this was the Achilles heel of the solar power targets. However, it is not for nothing that the latest funding measures such as the "1,2,3 Sonnengutschein" are aimed primarily at this group, and Czernohorszky promised to look at "where more support is needed".

For Deputy Mayor Bettina Emmerling, Vienna's climate targets are in any case non-negotiable, as climate protection is nothing more than civil protection in the face of increasingly hot summers. She, Ludwig and Czernohorszky therefore reiterated their commitment to the "phase out gas" target, according to which Vienna is to be climate-neutral by 2040, even if this target is "very demanding" (Ludwig) and "no easy task".