• Like several European Union member states, Austria has had to seek alternatives to Russian gas.
• The city of Vienna, in particular, has focused on efficiency, heat pumps and geothermal energy.
• The hope is that every political party can understand and recognise this national opportunity.

For years, Europe has relied on Russian gas for its energy supply. Russia's invasion of Ukraine forced many member states to seek alternatives, accelerating the energy transition towards more sustainable and secure sources. While gas consumption has fallen, fossil energy prices have risen and continue to rise. As a result, renewable energies have seen significant growth. Against this backdrop, some countries have distinguished themselves through far-sighted choices. Austria is one of them.

Although it finds itself in a complex political context – as does much of Europe – with the far right seeking to gain ground, the government in Vienna has managed in recent years to chart a determined course towards energy independence, banking on a mix of solutions aimed at reducing dependence on energy imports and promoting environmental sustainability.

Austria bets on heat pumps

A key element of this strategy is the large-scale adoption of electric heat pumps. These devices, which harness the thermal energy present in the environment, represent an efficient solution for heating and cooling buildings, significantly reducing fossil fuel consumption. In 2022, the year of a Europe-wide boom, heat pumps in Austria grew by 59 per cent (by comparison, in Italy they grew by 38 per cent in the same year).

In fact, heat pump sales in Austria fell by 6.5 per cent in 2023. Yet this is a very modest decline compared with the rest of Europe: indeed, despite heat pump manufacturing being one of the few clean technology sectors in which Europe is currently a global leader – covering 73 per cent of demand with domestic production – current European policies are providing very little incentive for the sale of this new technology, putting at risk the target of 60 million heat pumps by 2030, with a shortfall of up to 15 million units if the current trend is not reversed.

More geothermal energy and greater efficiency

Alongside heat pumps, Austria is investing in the energy efficiency of buildings and in the development of geothermal energy. Taking inspiration from New York's system, which has transported steam from Lower Manhattan to the residential neighbourhoods of midtown since the 1960s, Vienna's district heating network is today one of the largest in Europe, with 1,300 kilometres of pipes pumping hot air and water to more than 200,000 homes.

Today, Austrian state energy company Omv Ag is drilling into a vast geothermal basin three kilometres deep on the outskirts of Vienna. The exploitation of the Aderklaaer Konglomerate, as the underground hot water reservoir is known, forms part of a plan – named Raus aus gas – Out of gas – worth 20 billion euros to rewire the Austrian capital's heating system through wells, massive heat pumps and energy efficiency initiatives.

Another concrete example of this commitment is Wien Energie, Vienna's main municipal energy company, which has announced its intention to completely eliminate the use of Russian natural gas by 2025, sourcing supply primarily from North Sea resources. Wien Energie plans to double the number of homes reached by its district heating network, bringing it to 400,000 – roughly two thirds of Vienna's housing stock.

Nuclear? No, thanks!

To achieve energy independence, Austria is not banking – as other countries, including Italy, would like – on nuclear energy, which has been banned since 1978 and is considered an unsustainable solution. Indeed, in 2022 the country took legal action to prevent the European Union from including nuclear power in the green taxonomy – that is, among the green energy sources – and secured the closure of a nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic near its own border. To support similar initiatives at European level, organisations such as Greenpeace are promoting petitions calling on the EU to ban all forms of fossil fuels, including methane gas, by 2035.

The Austrian experience demonstrates that it is possible to pursue energy independence through bold choices and targeted investment in sustainable technologies, offering a positive example to the international community. The hope is that the far right will not undo these achievements: in Austria, the Freedom Party, which is pro-Russia and climate-sceptic, has been tasked with forming a new national government.

Meanwhile, global warming has increased Austria's average annual temperatures by one fifth over the past century. For this reason, what is needed is not new plans like those of President Donald Trump in the United States, which push for a "return to fossil fuels", but an ambitious energy transition towards renewable sources. And politics, in this, is fundamental.