The visit was organised jointly by the BCSD-UK and Heinz Felsner of BCSD Austria.

14 delegates from 12 organisations took part in this opportunity to learn how Güssing had addressed its need to obtain energy from local sustainable resources.

Peter Vadasz, Mayor of Güssing gave an overview of the Güssing Model in a lively talk which led into an interesting discussion amongst the group. Peter became Mayor only three years after the Iron Curtain was lifted. He wanted to turn Güssing's situation around. Being a small town on the borders, it did not retain its younger generation or financial economy. Güssing is a model of decentralised, regionalised economy as well as energy.

The first decision was to build a number of demonstration energy plants in the town and in the region – bio-diesel, biomass district heating from wood fuel supplying Güssing town and then in 2001 the biomass-steam gasification plant in Güssing built on all new technology.

The second step was to do research work on these plants in connection with the University of Vienna.

This self sufficiency in energy also benefited the region’s economy.
In the town of Güssing this has meant 50 new companies, more than 1,000 new jobs, and total increased sales volume of 13m Euro/year. In the district of Güssing the actual added value with 45% self sufficient use of renewable energies is 18m Euro/year and 37m Euro Potential added value with 100% self sufficient use of renewable energies.

An “eco tourist” business has been developed which now sees 1600 visitors per week eager to learn and this contributes directly to the local economy.

Güssing has the first photovoltaic panel manufacturing plant in Austria.
All public buildings in Güssing are connected to the district heating system.
The most important concept of the Güssing Model is to assess what renewable sustainable sources of energy are available local to the region and build plants related to these fuels producing energy locally for the community.

“Energy of the future will be a mix of many; sun, geothermal, waste, forest etc.”

Markus Koch, Operations Manager Biomass Gasification Plant gave a technical presentation of the working of the plant which can be seen in the Document Library.

Markus described his plant as “probably the only biomass gasification plant in the world which actually works” and we did get to walk round the plant with Markus and verify his statement.

Markus emphasised the importance of the research connection and explained how the focus on the plant was now towards developing the mix of outputs from the plant particularly methanisation technology to generate gas which could be put into a grid and use of the Fischer-Tropsche process to generate more vehicle fuels. A new extension to the plant which we were able to see is nearing completion to produce “natural gas” by methanisation of the gas produced from the gasifier.

Reinhard Koch, brother of Markus, continued with the overall Business Model of Güssing “Developing a National Energy Strategy” and the European Centre for Renewable Energy. Reinhard stressed the importance of continually assessing the market, available energy sources and mix of technologies. Current emphasis in Güssing is moving away from District heating and channelling more towards natural gas, fuel cells and synthetic liquid fuels- a pump price of €3 per litre will make this economically viable.

The idea is to have small plants in each town with 80% efficiency. This efficiency is not possible in a larger format. There are 2 plants planned for Germany, 2 for France, 3 more for Austria. Next Plant planned for Güssing is a 1MW plant fed from 200hectares of grass – “a Concrete COW”.

Güssing has the first PV panel manufacturing plant in Austria- a €50m investment employing 150 people.

Alfred Moser demonstrated the workings of the Wöllersdorf biodiesel plant and the technology and economics of running it successfully.

Dr Günther Clauss of Windenergie Burgenland – BEWAG - who have 10 windfarms in Burgenland, highlighted the opportunities and economics of developing electricity from wind. The company is the sole electric power utility in Austria and has no nuclear or thermal power in its product mix.

He stressed how important it is to have long term partners and credibility/security for making the business case for 15-20 year projects. Success came because “Every party involved were pulling on the same rope in the same direction” so it was possible to plan and make an entire wind farm in Burgenland in 2 years including Government agreement, Environmental Impact report, testing the wind for 1 year etc. The financials are helped by a “feed in tariff” of €c7.8 per KWh which translates to a 2MW turbine in a windspeed of 6.8m/s with 2000hrs per annum breaking even in 8years. “Makes a good business!”
 

Organisations taking part in the visit included: Accord Housing Association; E.ON; Learning Impact Ltd; Renewable Energy Consultants, Perth; Anthony Collins Solicitors/Bewdley Development Trust; University of Warwick Construction; Bioganix, Herefordshire; Climate Change Solutions; Birmingham City University, Technology Innovation Centre; Greenwatt Ltd and EBC Ltd.

Speaker presentations are available in the Document Library.

More photographs from the visit can be seen in the Gallery.