Austria approves 7,700 battery storage projects in funding round

Austria has expanded the budget for its second 2026 funding round for solar and battery storage projects to €48.76 million, allowing all 9,327 submitted applications to be approved, according to the Austrian Ministry for Economic Affairs.

The government had initially allocated €12 million for the funding round, which ran from June 23 to July 7. The increase is expected to support approximately 218.2 MW of new PV capacity and more than 200 MWh of battery storage, based on preliminary estimates.

The ministry said 7,708 of the approved applications include battery storage systems. The figures remain provisional, as not all applications have been fully reviewed and the projects have not yet been built.

Most applications came from the states of Lower Austria and Upper Austria, while Styria also recorded more than 1,000 submissions. Vienna received the fewest applications, with 293 solar projects, including 194 paired with battery storage.

Energy Minister Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer and State Secretary for Energy Elisabeth Zehetner said the strong response demonstrates continued investor interest in solar and storage technologies and supports Austria’s energy transition objectives.

Demand increased significantly compared with the first funding round of the year, when about 5,200 applications for solar projects with and without storage were approved. Those projects represented nearly 192 MW of PV capacity and around 120 MWh of storage capacity, with almost all of the €40 million budget allocated.

Austria plans to hold a third funding round this year, with applications scheduled to open from Oct. 8 to Oct. 22. The government has currently earmarked €8 million for that round.

Applicants can also qualify for Austria’s “Made in Europe” bonus, introduced after the previous funding round. The measure provides an additional 10% incentive for both PV systems and storage projects that use approved European-made equipment.

From pv magazine Deutschland