Austrian Economy Minister Martin Bartenstein said on a press conference in Vienna Monday that his country would speed up the development of hydroelectric power in the next a few years.
He pointed out that Austria has considerable potential and rich water resources for the further hydropower development. Therefore, Austria will invest 8.4 billion euros to boost the capability of electricity generation for about 7 terawatt hours (TWh) by the year 2020.
He emphasized that the development of hydropower can better protect Austrian natural environment. Energy-saving and diversification alone can not meet its annually 2 to 3 percent rising demand for energy.
Bartenstein pointed out that the proved potential hydropower resources in Austria are about 56 TWh, of which 38 TWh has been explored. There are still 13 TWh exploitable among the rest 18 TWh.
These 13 TWh resources are distributed in various states of Austria. He called on all the federal states for taking the responsibility of protect the environment and jointly accelerate the exploitation of hydropower.
In the previous year, Austria consumed about 67 TWh electricity,7 TWh of which relied on imports. If these 7 TWh were produced by conventional thermal power plant, about 3.1 million tons of carbon dioxide would be emitted.
Source:Xinhua
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