Austria is preparing legislation aimed at phasing out fossil fuels in heating, starting with a ban on the installation of gas boilers in new buildings from next year. Heating systems that use coal and oil should be switched to renewables by 2035 and the proposed deadline for gas is 2040.
Heating accounts for a quarter of Austria’s gas consumption, Minister of Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology Leonore Gewessler said as she presented the amendments to the Renewable Heating Act. She pointed out that buying foreign fossil gas, primarily from Russia, costs EUR 2 billion per year.
“Every gas heater that we replace with a sustainable heating system is a step out of dependency. Every apartment that we keep warm with sustainable heating makes us freer and less vulnerable to blackmail. That’s why from 2023 there should be an end to gas heating in new buildings,” Gewessler underscored.
The technology is currently set to be banned in 2025. Austria gets more than 80% of its gas from Russia.
When a heating oil or coal heater breaks down, it will need to be replaced by a renewable heating system, and by 2035 the country will have replaced all of them, according to the plan. The government banned the installation of such devices in 2020.
As for heating on fossil gas, the proposed deadline is 2040 and such systems can also switch to biogas, the minister added.
Anyone who switches to renewable heating systems, for instance pellet and heat pumps, is entitled to EUR 7,500 from the government, Gewessler said. The federal states offer their own subsidies. The minister noted that poor households can have the entire cost covered.
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