Wind energy supports public finances

During the service life of wind power plants, the branch pays twice as much into the public purse as it receives in funding granted under the terms of the current Green Electricity Act. Therefore, the IG Windkraft is appealing for courage with regard to the approval of an ambitious amendment to the act in parliament.

In view of the current parliamentary debate regarding an amendment to the Green Electricity Act, Stefan Moidl, the IG Windkraft CEO, has drawn attention to the positive contribution made by wind energy to the public finances. For although due to the distortions in the energy markets wind power needs the receipt of financial support from consumers within the framework of the Green Electricity Act, the payback to the state is twice as large as the expenditure on grants. “The funding of wind power is a lucrative proposition for the state. Total tax contributions to the public purse represent double the amount allocated to the wind plant operators in subsidies. Moreover, this figure does not take into account positive economic effects such as the creation of employment and the avoidance of CO2 certificate costs.”

The calculation

The financial payback from wind energy production to the state has been calculated on the basis of a standard investment model for wind farms. This takes into account the taxes paid by the farm operator, as well as those by contracted companies. A conservative figure was employed for the market price for standard of electricity, which is of major importance for this calculation. A current price of around 6 cents was selected along with an annual increase of 4.5 per cent, which was markedly lower than the price rises of the past decade. The results showed that the Austrian plant operators alone repay to the state roughly 133 per cent of the subsidies that they receive in taxation. Seen together with the value added chain created by the commissioning of companies by the plant operators, the returns increase to 164 per cent, and if this figure is supplemented by the payments to foreign state budgets, it results in a total of 200 per cent. Consequently, the sum of the contributions to the public purse is twice the size of the grants received.

The cost of wind power grants in 2010 amounted to EUR 4.3 per household

At the beginning of 2011, 625 wind power plants with a total capacity of 1,011 MW fed electricity into the Austrian national grid. The plants generated roughly 2.1 billion kWh of clean energy, which equals the annual electricity consumption of some 600,000 households. The subsidies for these plants in 2010 amounted to EUR 4.3 per household for the entire year. Should wind energy be the object of major expansion, at a maximum these costs would double, but wind power secures 3,300 jobs in Austria.

In view of the positive economic effects of wind energy, Stefan Moidl hopes that courage will be shown in the national parliamentary resolution concerning the Green Electricity Act. The federal economics minister, Reinhold Mitterlehner, has already introduced marked improvements to the government bill, as compared to the first draft. What now remains is the modification of a few, but nonetheless decisive, details in parliament, which above all relate to the amount of funding to be made available and how the wind energy project waiting list can be reduced.

*IG Windkraft – wind power pressure group