Message 001
Communication from the Commission - TRIS/(2023) 1955
Directive (EU) 2015/1535
Notification: 2023/0397/AT
Notification of a draft text from a Member State
Notification – Notification – Notifzierung – Нотификация – Oznámení – Notifikation – Γνωστοποίηση – Notificación – Teavitamine – Ilmoitus – Obavijest – Bejelentés – Notifica – Pranešimas – Paziņojums – Notifika – Kennisgeving – Zawiadomienie – Notificação – Notificare – Oznámenie – Obvestilo – Anmälan – Fógra a thabhairt
Does not open the delays - N'ouvre pas de délai - Kein Fristbeginn - Не се предвижда период на прекъсване - Nezahajuje prodlení - Fristerne indledes ikke - Καμμία έναρξη προθεσμίας - No abre el plazo - Viivituste perioodi ei avata - Määräaika ei ala tästä - Ne otvara razdoblje kašnjenja - Nem nyitja meg a késéseket - Non fa decorrere la mora - Atidėjimai nepradedami - Atlikšanas laikposms nesākas - Ma jiftaħx il-perijodi ta’ dewmien - Geen termijnbegin - Nie otwiera opóźnień - Não inicia o prazo - Nu deschide perioadele de stagnare - Nezačína oneskorenia - Ne uvaja zamud - Inleder ingen frist - Ní osclaíonn sé na moilleanna
MSG: 20231955.EN
1. MSG 001 IND 2023 0397 AT EN 29-06-2023 AT NOTIF
2. Austria
3A. Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Wirtschaft
Abteilung V/8
A-1010 Wien, Stubenring 1
Telefon +43-1/71100-805433
E-Mail: not9834@bmaw.gv.at
3B. Magistrat der Stadt Wien
Magistratsabteilung 20 - Energieplanung
A-1010 Wien, Rathausstraße 14-16
Telefon: +43-1/4000-88305
Fax: +43 1 4000 88304
E-Mail: post@ma20.wien.gv.at
4. 2023/0397/AT - B00 - Construction
5. Ordinance of the Vienna City Council laying down a Spatial Energy Plan for the 15th District is established
6. Heating systems in new buildings
Planning of heating systems in new buildings
Construction and planning of piped infrastructure for heat supply
7.
8. With the amendment of the Vienna Building Code at the end of 2018 (Provincial Law Gazette (LGBl.) No 69/2018), an instrument was introduced in the form of the Spatial Energy Plan, which makes it possible to control the use of energy sources for the provision of space heating and hot water in new buildings in a targeted and sustainable manner.
The regulation is an Ordinance under the Vienna Building Code, and is enforced alongside building law. It is enacted separately for each municipal district.
It stipulates that, where district heating is available, either this or another highly efficient alternative system in accordance with § 118(3) of the Vienna Building Code is to be used. As a result, natural gas is no longer permitted in new buildings in these areas for space heating and hot water.
The Plan Supplements are available during the notification procedure at the following link:
https://www.wien.gv.at/stadtentwicklung/energie/erp/aktuell.html
NB: A total of nineteen Spatial Energy Plans have already been notified between 2020 and the end of 2022.
9. The European Parliament voted in favour of the EU ratification of the UN climate agreement on 4 October 2016, following the approval of the Council of Ministers on 30 September. EU ratification paved the way for the first universal, legally binding global climate protection agreement to come into force on 4 November 2016.
The goal of limiting global warming to well below two degrees Celsius in the long term means decarbonising the entire energy system and thus completely phasing out the fossil fuels coal, oil and natural gas by 2050.
Decarbonisation of the space heating market
This also requires major changes in the space heating sector, which is still heavily dependent on fossil-based heating systems. Many natural gas heating systems are still being deployed in new buildings. Oil heating systems have already been banned in new buildings in Austria by Federal Law (Ölkesseleinbauverbotsgesetz [Act prohibiting oil-fired boiler installation] – ÖKEVG 2019 (965/A)).
The space heating market is very slow-moving. Boilers have an average service life of 20 to 25 years, with many gas-fired boilers and heaters in operation for 30 years or more. A complete phase-out of fossil fuels in this market is therefore only possible in the long term. A consistent transition requires several steps, starting with specific criteria for new buildings.
The space heating sector already has a number of technologically and commercially developed alternatives to fossil-based heating systems that have been around for some time. In Vienna, too, the funding policy in recent years has already very successfully promoted the use of heating systems based on renewable energy sources and district heating. For example, most new buildings have been heated for years with heat pumps or district heating (a plan for decarbonisation by 2040 has been developed, which is intended to ensure compliance with the climate targets and also takes account of the developments foreseeable with EU emissions trading) and, in exceptional cases, with wood pellets. Statistics are already showing, for example, that more than 40 % of households and commercial buildings in Vienna are already using these climate-friendly heating systems.
Technical and economic alternatives to natural gas heating in new buildings
Regulations such as the Spatial Energy Plans now being enacted require technical and economic alternatives to fossil-based heating systems (gas heating systems) to be available in order to be in line with the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. An accompanying report commissioned by the City of Vienna (before the current ‘gas price crisis’) showed the economic viability of renewable solutions based on heat pumps that can be used across the city. This creates the necessary conditions for reducing the proportion of fossil gas heating systems in new buildings in accordance with the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and its Austrian national transposition.
Taking account of the economic situation of highly efficient alternative heat supply systems in new buildings, as described above, there may be deemed to exist an unqualified public interest in eliminating the use of fossil fuels for heating and water heating systems in all situations where at least two highly efficient alternative systems in compliance with the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive are available. This is the case for the areas identified in the Spatial Energy Plans.
The aim is to support the achievement of climate and energy targets, in particular with regard to the decarbonisation of the heat supply in new buildings. In addition, the rational unbundling of the piped infrastructure (district heating and gas) is started – also for cost reasons – and thus ensures planning certainty for investors.
National responsibility
Unlike installations in those sectors that fall within the scope of EU emissions trading, the Member States are responsible for reducing CO2 emissions from heating installations in buildings. By laying down Spatial Energy Plans, the aim is to reduce these emissions and thus contribute to the achievement of the Austrian CO2 reduction target in accordance with the EU Effort Sharing Regulation.
Summary
The Paris Climate Protection Agreement requires a phase-out of fossil fuels by 2050. The Austrian Federal Government and the Vienna Provincial Government are aiming for ‘climate neutrality’ by 2040. This requires, among other things, the complete replacement of fossil fuels for space heating and hot water in buildings. As a first step, the Spatial Energy Plans laid down by Vienna exclude the installation of fossil heating systems in new buildings when the new building can be connected to district heating and at least one other highly efficient, alternative heating system is possible. Preliminary studies have shown that restricting the choice of heating to non-fossil systems is technologically and economically reasonable.
Given the long service life of heating systems and the urgency of the ‘climate neutrality objective’, measures to restrict the use of fossil heating systems in new buildings have no alternative. The replacement or modification of existing systems of that type is not currently addressed by the Spatial Energy Plans. (However, the Spatial Energy Plan Ordinances will provide experience which may be useful for the possible extension of this legal instrument for regulating heating systems in existing buildings as well.)
The current Ordinance is being extended for each individual municipal district to cover the entire city area on an equal basis. A Spatial Energy Plan has already been notified and adopted at the district level for a total of nineteen Viennese districts. These Ordinances have already entered into force and have already been notified.
10. Reference to the basic texts:
B-2023-0397-DE-01
11. No
12.
13. No
14. No
15. Yes
16.
TBT aspects: No
SPS aspects: No
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European Commission
Contact point Directive (EU) 2015/1535
email: grow-dir2015-1535-central@ec.europa.eu
