Green Electricity Act

In Austria, the Green Electricity Act ("Ökostromgesetz") provides the main legal basis for the support of renewable energy sources. Electricity from renewable sources is essentially supported through feed-in tariffs, which are themselves laid down in the Feed-In Tariff Ordinance ("Ökostrom-Einspeisetarifverordnung") adopted by the Minister of Science, Research and Economy. As long as funds are available, the Green Power Settlement Agent ("Ökostromabwicklungsstelle") is obliged to conclude contracts with the operators of green power plants and purchase their electricity for the feed-in tariffs set out in the ordinance. In principle, the feed-in tariff scheme applies to all renewable energy technologies. However, hydro-power plants are only eligible up to a capacity of 2 MW, whereas PV installations have to exceed 5 kWp. Furthermore plants generating electricity from solid and liquid biomass, biogas or geothermal energy have to meet certain criteria regarding to efficiency and/or sustainability. Apart from the revenues made by the Green Power Settlement Agent form the sale of electricity and guarantees of origin, the costs for the green power support scheme are borne by the end users. Electricity consumers find two related items on their bills: the renewables contribution ("Ökostromfoerderbeitrag"), which is a percentage markup on the use of system charge and the charge for grid losses, and the flat-rate renewables charge ("Ökostrompauschale").

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