From town gas to Red Gas from the Soviet Union: Vienna’s Path to Natural Gas Dependence
Moderation:Martin Knoll/Sebastian Haumann
Zeit: 08.04.2025 17:00-19:00 Uhr c.t
Ort: HS 380, HS Erika Weinzierl
“Raus aus Gas” (Out of Gas) is the title of a campaign by the City of Vienna that promotes the phase-out of natural gas, heating oil and coal in the domestic sector by 2040. Around one million gas appliances are to be replaced by CO2-neutral alternatives – after all, 90% of emissions in the building sector are currently caused by gas heating. A look back in time shows that the city of Vienna already mastered a comparable energy transition between 1969 and 1978 – when it switched from coal-based town gas and to natural gas. This conversion affected 1.5 million gas appliances in 750,000 households. Although this had been envisaged since the 1950s, it failed due to the significantly higher calorific value of natural gas, which would have required the conversion of all gas appliances, and the lack of a secure long-term supply. It was only when the supply contract with the Soviet Union was signed in 1968 that the energy transition gained momentum. Vienna became dependent on Soviet and later Russian imports for decades. In this presentation, I will share new research on the political and material dimensions of this energy transition and discuss what lessons can be learned for the present and the future.
Robert Groß: completed his PhD in Environmental History at the Institute of Social Ecology in 2017, followed by positions of assistant for research and teaching at three Austrian universities and fellowships in Austria, the USA and Germany. Since 2019, he has been devoting his habilitation to the history of European fossil energy. Together with Katharina Scharf, he has been the regional representative of the DACH region in the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) since 2023.
