It gets hot in Austria and the demand for environmentally friendly long -distance cold is increasing. Most recently, sales of long -distance cold rose by almost 16 percent. In addition to Vienna, Linz and St. Pölten, Bregenz is also included in the list of “cool spots” this year.
The produced and sold remote cold is steadily increasing every year. With exactly 15.9 percent, growth last year was particularly strong. In 2023 the remote cold sales had increased by almost nine percent. Long -distance cold is provided with hospitals, shopping centers, train stations, schools and universities or hotels.
The decisive factor for the strong demand for long -term cold in the previous year was not only the significantly increased cooling energy requirement as a result of the hottest year since the start of the records, but also the strong expansion of the remote cold network.
Heat records heat demand
“The heat records of the past few years heat the demand for distant cold throughout Germany,” says Katalin Griessmair-Farkas, deputy managing director of the Gas Heat Association. “We find that, for example, more and more operators of shopping centers or offices but also housing cooperatives want to cool their buildings with long -distance cold.”
In 2024, Austria had the warmest year of its 257-year-old measurement history by far: in the lowlands of Austria and on the mountains it was 1.8 degrees warmer than in an average year of the climatea period 1991 to 2020. In terms of refrigerator hours, this development led to a comparison of around 28 percent in the past year. In the summer months of June, July and August, the sales of the remote cold even increased by 35.2 percent.
More line kilometers
Since 2009, the sale of long -distance cold on the Austrian market has more than tenfold at 237.2 GWH. Due to the ongoing line expansion and the increased connection in buildings, demand increased.
- As of the end of 2024, the total length of the domestic remote cold network had grown by 3.1 kilometers to a total of 42.6 kilometers. That corresponds to an increase of almost eight percent.
- During the same period, the installed remote cooling performance rose from 186.2 megawatts (MW) to 203.3 MW – this means a performance increase of 17.1 MW or an increase of 9.2 percent.
Vienna invested, Bregenz under “Cool Spots”
So far, the focus of the cold supply in Austria is primarily in Vienna, where, among other things, the University of Vienna, the General Hospital, the Parliament, the Rathaus or the Vienna State Opera are cooled environmentally friendly. In 2025, the expansion of the remote cold network in Vienna will continue: new chillers were installed in the Schottenring cold center, a system went into operation in Floridsdorf, and an innovative ice storage is built at the MedUni Campus.
In the meantime, however, the state capitals Linz and St. Pölten have also followed up and are among the “cool spots”. Bregenz is new in this cool circle. The city started with the supply of buildings with sustainable cold this year. A particularly environmentally friendly process is used – the so -called “free cooling” with water from Lake Constance, which is used directly for building cooling via cold exchanger, i.e. without the use of energy -intensive machines.
outlook
Long -distance cold works similarly to district heating – only the other way around: cold water is transported directly to buildings via an underground line system and used there for room cooling. The energy for refrigeration generation usually comes from environmentally friendly sources such as waste heat, river water or industrial recooling systems. In addition, cooling with long -distance cold brings a significant relief for power grids when air conditioning is in full swing.
Further remote cold projects in the federal states are being planned: from 2026, remote cold should go online in Klagenfurt and remote cold should also be available in Graz from 2030.
“We expect the current distance capacities to be doubled in the next five years-that is, a total of around 370 megawatts,” says Griessmair-Farkas. This could cool an area of more than seven square kilometers – an area larger than the Vienna Prater.
About nearer cold
Long -distance cold is the environmentally friendly alternative to individual climatization. The remote cold is generated in absorption chillers (which use the waste heat from industry, KWK systems or waste burning), or-as in the case of Bregenz-directly by using the lake water using cold exchangers (“free cooling”). As with district heating, the objects are supplied centrally or decentrally. A refrigeration center is built at the consumer in decentralized care. Isolated pipes transport the water cooled to 5 to 6 degrees Celsius to the customer. With about 16 degrees Celsius it flows back to recooling again.