Schitter urges faster approvals and more staff for renewables

Energy AG Chief Executive Leonhard Schitter is calling for a rapid expansion of renewable energy, including wind and solar power, as drought has sharply reduced hydropower generation in Austria, ORF reported.

Schitter said the country needed faster legislation and quicker approval procedures. He also called for more civil servants to handle those processes.

“We will build all the facilities we can bring together here. But we also need a kind of energy pact,” Schitter said. He previously served as a board member of Salzburg AG, in which Energie AG Oberösterreich holds a 26.13 percent stake.

Schitter said politicians, the public and the energy sector needed to support renewable expansion even if rain returned and current images of heat and drought faded from public attention.

“One thing is also completely clear: the next dry period will definitely come,” he said.

Hydropower generation in Salzburg is currently up to 30 percent below normal because of the drought, according to ORF.