A Spatially Highly Resolved Ground Mounted and Rooftop Potential Analysis for Photovoltaics in Austria

Abstract

Austria aims to meet 100% of its electricity demand from domestic renewable sources by 2030 which means, that an additional 27 TWh/a of renewable electricity generation are required, thereof 11 TWh/a from photovoltaic. While some federal states and municipalities released a solar rooftop cadastre, there is lacking knowledge on the estimation of the potential of both, ground mounted installations and rooftop modules, on a national level with a high spatial resolution. As a first, in this work data on agricultural land-use is combined with highly resolved data on buildings on a national level. Our results show significant differences between urban and rural areas, as well as between the Alpine regions and the Prealpine- and Easter Plain areas. Rooftop potential concentrates in the big urban areas, but also in densely populated areas in Lower- and Upper Austria, Styria and the Rhine valley of Vorarlberg. The ground mounted photovoltaic potential is highest in Eastern Austria. This potential is geographically consistent with the demand and allows for a production close to the consumer. In theory, the goal of meeting 11 TWh/a in 2030 can be achieved solely with the rooftop PV potential. However, considering the necessary installation efforts, the associated costs of small and dispersed production units and finally the inherent uncertainty with respect to the willingness of tens of thousands of individual households to install PV systems, installing the necessary solar PV on buildings alone is constrained.

Application of Satellite Data for Estimating Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Potential

“…The highest mean RTPs are found in larger urban areas and regions with abundant solar resources. Urban areas and settlement agglomerations can provide the highest capacity densities due to their high building densities [16,18]. In accordance with [11], the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, and Baden-Württemberg exhibit the highest RTPs, while Hamburg, Bremen, and Saarland exhibit the lowest.…”

“…In a previous study, a potential of 0.2 million km 2 of rooftop area was estimated, providing 27.0 PWh yr −1 of electricity globally at costs between USD 40 and 280 MWh −1 [13], while another study quantified a suitable rooftop area of 0.04 million km 2 and a potential of 8.3 PWh yr −1 [6]. Particularly larger buildings often provide better conditions and circumstances for installations due to their flat roofs, fewer or no chimneys, and better grid connections [16].…”

Assessment of socio-technical configurations (ITA-manu:script 23-01)

“…In Austria, the current government aims to shift the electricity supply entirely to renewable sources by 2030. A large share of this is to be provided by decentralized solar photovoltaic (PV) systems (Mikovits et al 2021). A "one million roofs" programme is being prepared for the increased dissemination of solar power generation (Bundeskanzleramt Österreich, 2020).…”

Towards a Renewable Energy Source Cadastre—A Review of Examples from around the World

“…Total analysis on roofs and facades was carried out in Geneva (Switzerland) [32,54]. For Austria, the photovoltaic potential of rooftops in addition to ground-mounted installations were tested [55]. In Poland, areas suitable for the installation of photovoltaic farms were identified for rural municipalities [56].…”