Austria's largest state goes 100% renewable

Austria's largest state said Thursday that 100 percent of its electricity is now generated using renewable sources of energy.

"We have invested heavily to boost energy efficiency and to expand renewables," said Erwin Proell, premier of 1.65-million-strong Lower Austria.

"Since 2002 we have invested 2.8 billion euros ($3.0 billion) in eco-electricity, from solar parks to renewing (hydroelectric) stations on the Danube," Proell told a news conference.

The state in northeastern Austria now gets 63 percent of its electricity from hydroelectric power, 26 percent from wind energy, nine percent from biomass and two percent from solar.

In Austria as a whole, which voted against nuclear power in a 1978 referendum, 75 percent comes from renewables and the rest from fossil fuels.

Lower Austria has also created 38,000 "green jobs", Proell said, which the state aims to increase to 50,000 by 2030.

The announcement comes ahead of a gathering of world leaders in Paris in December aimed at reaching an ambitious global deal to tackle climate change.