Comparison of Czech and Austrian approaches to the production of electricity from renewable resources
Comparison of Czech and Austrian approaches to production of electricity from renewable resources Introduction In the near future people will face challenge of emerging energy crisis and will have to solve this problem. We will deplete the resources of fossil fuels but our energy consumption will be increasing. There are two options how to struggle with this situation after that. We can use either nuclear energy or energy from renewable resources. Both options are right because in both ways our fossil fuels consumption will decrease and so the CO2 emission. In Austria the energy consumption is increasing, so it is in the Czech Republic. The energy mix of the Czech Republic and Austria is very different. The supply is highly influenced by geographical conditions that prevail in each country. Austria is on a good path to be sustainable whereas the situation in the Czech Republic is rather controversial. The other factors that influence energy mix are the decisions of policy makers and the mentality of citizens. In Austria, there are more generous subsidies for renewable resources, better marketing and public awareness. These are factors that can be changed also in the Czech Republic when civil society and media make bigger effort. The topic is also more popular in media. In the Czech Republic there are sufficient resources of coal and uranium. The potential of hydro energy in Austria is huge, 60 % of electric energy is made out of hydroelectric power plants. On the other hand, in the Czech Republic there is only 3 % of electricity made in hydroelectric power plants. The potential of Czech rivers in almost fulfilled. The further expansion is very limited due to unfavourable conditions. If the Czech Republic started to build new hydroelectric power plants, it would be only possible with huge investments and even then the electricity generated by those power plants would be very small. Electricity generation in Czech and Austria – comparison