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--- cover-image: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GTIF-Austria/public-assets/refs/heads/main/assets/thumbnails/klien_data/PV-ground-mounted.jpg
domain: Energy Transition tags: KLIEN,renewable energy,energy potential,energy technology,photovoltaic,electricity provider: Umweltbundesamt,AIT Center for Energy
Photovoltaic Potential – Study on Renewable Energy Potentials
Background
The photovoltaic (PV) analysis is based on assumptions regarding new building development up to 2040 and on a framework relevant for rating the necessary extent of land use and the viability of land use change. The assessing criterias include characteristic technical, economical and social patterns of 26 different existing land use classes. Three storylines illustrate different pathways for PV deployment:- Low: Ongoing permitting, planning, grid, and supply chain barriers slow expansion. Reduced incentives, limited storage and slow grid development lead to increasing curtailment and lower total yields. PV remains concentrated on buildings using the best suited areas only. Ground-mounted PV is falling short of its area potential resulting in highly efficient and spatial concentrated PV but little total energy yield.
- Medium: Gradual removal of administrative and grid related barriers enables continued growth, mainly on buildings, complemented by increasing ground mounted and multi use installations. Electrification and infrastructure development progress steadily under generally favourable conditions.
- High: Most barriers are removed, grid access is widely available, and PV systems are optimised for self consumption and integration. Storage, energy communities and digital energy management enable high flexibility and output, strongly supporting innovation driven expansion while activating the potential area on buildings and open space.
Methodology
Fundamentally a nationwide, uniform land use assessment is conducted across Austria, which is aggregated into three dimensions: building-integrated PV, ground-mounted PV on sealed surfaces, and ground-mounted PV on unsealed surfaces. PV installations along and on linear technical infrastructure are considered part of ground-mounted PV on sealed surfaces.Assessment of Technical Potentials
Buildings (Roof and Façade)
The PV electricity yield potential for roofs and facades across the Austrian territory is derived from GIS datasets. Taking into account averaged system efficiencies, which are assumed to improve slightly over time (from 19.0% in the target year 2030 to 20.4% in the target year 2040), a potential electricity yield in kilowatt-hours of alternating current is calculated for each roof type. As technological innovation and cost reductions in electricity generation are expected within the sector, the long-term potential for 2040 includes an expansion of eligible roof areas to those with global irradiation values of at least 550 kWh/m²·a. PV on facades were calculated using the solar radiation on vertical surfaces while taking into account the distant and near shading situation on municipality level.Open Land
For the purposes of the calculations, open land areas are classified into 26 land-use categories. To determine PV potential, potentially suitable open land areas were identified and categorized based on available geospatial data. A general distinction is made between area-based and linear land-use structures. The total land area of Austria is reduced by those areas that cannot be considered suitable for ground-mounted photovoltaic systems. Land-cover classes include contaminated sites, commercial and industrial areas, extraction sites, agricultural land, grassland with and without agricultural use, wasteland, settlement areas, forests including managed forestry, and large public parking areas.Assessment of Realizable Potentials
Buildings (Roof and Façade)
The technically usable roof and facade areas are reduced by economic and social realisation factors. Potentials on pitched and flat roofs are assessed with slightly different weighting. The building footprint areas expanded in the target years are distributed analogously to the existing proportions of the two roof types. This results in realisable potentials differentiated by three storylines and two target years.Open Land
Realisable potentials for the target years 2030 and 2040 are determined on the basis of additional, specificparameters and expert assumptions, applying economic and social realization factors in a two-step procedure. Individual usability factors are assigned to different land-cover classes under the respective considerations.