News - Biomass and Solar Site Visits - Styria, Austria

TV Energy recently organised and led a trip to the province of Styria in south-east Austria to visit large and small scale biomass facilities and large scale solar thermal and PV installations.

The trip, part funded by GOSE, was undertaken by 18 people who included county councillors, council officers, architects, students, members of the agriculture industry and consultants. Participants found the trip extremely interesting and beneficial, with many returning to the UK keen to push the renewable energy agenda further within their respective fields of influence.

The first day involved visits to two biomass facilities. The first at Mureck featured a 4MWth biomass district heating scheme alongside a biodiesel production facility and biogas plant. Started by a local farmers' co-operative, this facility was the winner of a World Energy Globe in 2001.

The second facility at Ratschendorf featured a small wood chip district heating system providing heat to the local primary school and five residential buildings.

Following a splendid evening in a local restaurant, day two included visits to both solar thermal and PV installations, as well as more biomass facilities and more wet weather.

We started at the Solar City of Gleisdorf and having reviewed a range of PV and small biomass operations at the wrong but very welcoming location, we then visited the local sports facility and its large scale solar thermal installation. This was followed by the combined biomass/solar district heating plant (1.6MWth) at Gnas, utilising wood chip and a complete roof of solar collectors.

Wood chip store at Mureck biomass facility

Gnas biomass plant with solar thermal roof

The afternoon featured a visit to the large 18MWth biomass CHP plant at Hartberg, featuring their pioneering power system. This large plant was visited top to bottom and involved having a head for heights! More general information on energy policy in Hartberg can be found at www.energie-cites.org/BD/PDF/har-com-en.pdf

The final morning saw visits to the 350mē, 35kWp PV installation on the Helmut List Hall, Graz and the 1,407mē solar thermal system at the Arnold Schwarzenegger football stadium, also in Graz, which feeds hot water into the district heating main as well as providing for the stadium's needs. For more information on this see www.solid.at

As well as the visits, we passed countless domestic solar thermal systems, a PV noise barrier and other biomass facilities. It was terrific to see how the people of Styria have embraced renewables and our thanks go to Landes Energie Verein Steiermark and Graz Energy Agency for helping make the trip so successful.