Market premium subsidy starts in Austria

In Austria, the market premium subsidy for photovoltaic systems has come into force, a component of the Renewable Expansion Act (Erneuerbaren-Ausbau-Gesetz, EAG) already passed in July 2021. It supplements the investment subsidy of the EAG, which has been running since April of this year.
The market premium is a subsidy on the electricity sold by plant operators and fed into the public grid. Here, the operator specifies via a bid the amount up to which any sales revenue below this amount must be topped up. The maximum value defined in the ordinance on market premium subsidies is 9.33 euro cents per kilowatt hour; for ground-mounted systems, it is 25 percent lower. In view of the high electricity prices and the resulting revenues in the marketing of solar electricity, the subsidy is unlikely to be paid out at present, but it represents a safeguard for plant operators in the long term.
Plants with an output of ten kilowatts or more are eligible to participate. The first round of bidding is scheduled to take place on December 13. The aim is to secure 700 megawatts of system output annually via the market premium subsidy.
The Austrian Federal Association of Photovoltaic (PV Austria) now sees it as the duty of the federal states to ensure that suitable areas and, above all, the required electricity grid capacities are made available. With the exception of Burgenland and Lower Austria, no federal state has yet designated areas for larger plants.
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