The government bill on the Renewable Heating Act released on November 2nd, 2022, sets the legal framework for the future of heating in Austria. It includes a phase out plan for fossil energy carries and aims for complete decarbonization of the heating sector in 2040.
The government bill on the Renewable Heating Act released on November 2nd, 2022, sets the legal framework for the future of heating in Austria. It includes a phase out plan for fossil energy carries and aims for complete decarbonization of the heating sector in 2040.
From 2023, it will be prohibited to install gas heating systems in newly constructed residential buildings, except for projects that have already been approved. Systems that can be operated with solid or liquid fossil fuels such as coal, oil and liquefied natural gas may already no longer be installed, and existing systems based on these energy carriers must be replaced or shut down by mid-2035.
The conditions for a continuous replacement process for these systems, dependent on their age, will be addressed by 2025. The same applies to systems based on gaseous energy carries by 2040, except for those that are fuelled entirely by renewable gases.
Technologies like district heating or heat pumps that are based on renewable energy are to replace all these systems. To reduce the costs for replacing fossil-based systems, the switch to such these technologies will be subsidised. Details on the subsidies are not released yet. The goal is that fossil heating is completely shut down by 2040 and fossil energy carries are not used in any capacity. Systems below a certain age that depend on gaseous energy carriers shall only be operated if they do not use any fossil gas, which emphasizes the importance of labelling renewable gases.
Source here.