Vienna airport builds Austria's largest solar plant, bringing it closer to its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2023

Business case

Reduced green house gas emissions released into the biosphere

Reduce Emissions (SDG13)

Providing electricity and gas services, including traditional and renewable energy generation, natural and manufactured gas and operating gas networks

Energy Utilities and Independent Power Producers

Producing electric cables and wires, power-generating equipment, including solar modules, motors, power turbines, as well as electronic equipment and instruments, including computer chips, communication equipment, analytical instruments, lasers, display screens, point-of-sales machines, security system equipment, and healthcare equipment

Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Replace energy sources with less impactful alternatives and enact energy efficiency measures

Regenerative energy

Using renewable energy like solar, wind, etc. or renewable fuels like biomass, etc.

Renewable energy, fuels

Develop regenerative infrastructure

Regenerate strategies phase out hazardous or toxic materials and processes and substitute them with regenerative biomass resources. A circular economy aims to mimic natural cycles—by shifting to more regenerative farming practices, for example—while also maximising the share of circular biomass that enters the economy. Regeneration can happen both at the systems level (by designing regenerative processes) as well as at the product level (by switching synthetic to organic fertilisers, for example).

Regenerate

Impacts

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Industries

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A framework of policy instruments that enabled and encourage the transition to the circular economy

Policy Instruments

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A framework of policy instruments that enable and stimulate the transition to the circular economy

The principles of a circular economy concern designing out waste, regenerating ecosystems and keeping items in use. Decoupling the economy from material flows—improving the rate of resource productivity faster than the economic growth rate—is also a consistent guide. By evolving with the growing number of applications of circular economy principles, and consolidating these strategies across thematic areas, Circle Economy’s Key Elements Framework (KE) renders the elements of the circular economy salient and serves as a basis to derive contextual strategies and interventions. 


The Framework consists of:
- Core Elements: Activities directly handling product or material flows; and uniquely,
- Enabling Elements: those that remove obstacles for core actors.


Key elements of the circular economy

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Circle Economy's framework of strategies and activities that define the circular economy

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Based on the work of [Bocken et al. (2016)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309699661_Product_design_and_business_model_strategies_for_a_circular_economy), the Four Flows Framework serves as a simple framework for managing resource flows in a circular economy by using less (Narrow), using for longer (Slow), using again (Cycle), and using clean, regenerative materials and energy (Regenerate).

These different principles of circular economy can be applied to our socioeconomic metabolism: we can design stocks like buildings, infrastructure, machinery, and vehicles to be rich resource mines for the future, and design manufactured goods and consumables to be cycled and made regenerative. Furthermore, the focus must also centre on getting more value out of fewer materials. Achieving the aims of a circular economy—minimising material use, regenerating the Earth, and preventing material losses—can be done through these four key strategies mentioned above.

Source: Circle Economy. (2023). *[The circularity gap report 2023](https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023)* (p.22). Amsterdam: Circle Economy. 

Four Flows Framework

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 Austria’s capital city intends to reach climate neutrality by 2040 or ten years before the European Union as a whole. Transportation infrastructure is one of the most challenging segments of the economy, as such ambitious goals imply a swift transition to alternative energy technologies. The Vienna International Airport is spearheading decarbonization solutions on the local level.
Flughafen Wien Group claims it would eliminate its net emissions of carbon dioxide, in which the new solar power plant, the biggest one in the country, has a major role. The company, which also operates airports in Košice in Slovakia and in Malta, said the facility in Schwechat started producing electricity.
New solar power plant covers one third of airport’s electricity needs
There are 55,000 new solar power panels installed on 24 hectares in the territory of Vienna’s airport. Annual production is estimated at 30 GWh. Flughafen Wien earlier announced the facility’s peak capacity would be 24 MW, which translates to a maximum of 20 MW to be delivered to the grid. The company counts on the solar power plant to cover a third of its annual electricity consumption.
The investment is worth EUR 20 million, of which EUR 1.8 million was spent in the first quarter of this year, according to the latest financial report.
Flughafen Wien has agreed with domestic oil company OMV to utilize the waste heat from its nearby refinery for heating the buildings at the airport. Furthermore, Shwechat uses geothermal energy and has several hundred electric vehicles.
Schwechat to generate more power than it requires
There are 250 firms operating at the Vienna airport. The hub already has seven smaller photovoltaic units. The company said it would install solar power panels on seven more hectares and produce more electricity than it needs for the airport’s buildings and services.
Airports are a small part of the air transportation system, so it also requires newer airplanes that consume less kerosene as well as more efficient flight routes and carbon neutral kerosene, the airport’s board member Julian Jäger said.
Airports usually have vast space, including rooftops and parking lots, that can be used to install photovoltaic panels. The producers of the devices are developing solutions to diffuse the sunlight’s reflection as it reduces the visibility of pilots and flight controllers. 

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Vienna

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Vienna International Airport

The Vienna International Airport has recently completed building Austria's largest solar power plant. The plant covers 24 hectares, includes over 50,000 solarpanels and has a peak capacity of 24 MW. Initially it will be able to cover a third of the airport's energy needs. The airport has previously implemented adistrict heating scheme using waste heat from its nearby refinery plant and is also planning to move its entire fleet to electromobility. All these measuressupport the airport's transition to carbon neutrality.