Fernwärme#

District Heating: Before World War II, the first steps were taken toward providing district heating in Austria, in 1949 the first municipal long-distance heating system was activated in Klagenfurt, after 1955 the availability of district heating was rapidly and continuously increased. In the last few decades the rate of increase has been on average 8.3 % annually, so in 1998 approximately 13 % of residential housing in Austria (approx. 433,000 homes) was linked to the district heating network.

In Vienna, the percentage of homes heated by district heating comes to approximately 24 %, in Upper Austria15 %, in Salzburg and Styria 14 %, in Carinthia 9 %, in Tirol 5 %, in Lower Austria 4 %, in Burgenland and in Vorarlberg 1 %. Heating services are run by companies with various financial bases and having various legal forms; the largest percentage is run by municipal heating providers. The percentage of heat produced by combined heat and power plants amounts to 68 %.