Burgenland lies in the east of Austria, and has borders with the Slovak Republic to the north-east, Hungary to the east and Slovenia in the south-east. Burgenland's area of 3 965 km² makes it the third-smallest Land in the Austrian federation, but in terms of population (2006: 280 082) it is the smallest Land. Its north-south elongation (160 km) on the one hand and the consequences of the re-drawing of borders after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the associated loss of functional markets, particularly the loss of all developed urban centres, have had a serious impact on the development of the region.

 

In 1921, Burgenland was separated from the former Western Hungary, and became the ninth Land of the Austrian federation. The former regional urban centres such as Sopron (pop. 60 000) or Szombathely (pop. 80 000) remained in Hungary. Even today, Burgenland is predominantly made up of small towns and villages, with the regional capital of Eisenstadt with its population of 12 366 (2006) having the highest population. Topographically, Burgenland is largely in the periphery of the Hungarian lowlands.

 

Due to the opening of the borders to neighboring countries in the early 1990s, and their EU accession, the geopolitical situation of Burgenland has recently changed once more. Now the Land is part of the 'CENTROPE' region (with Vienna, Bratislava, Györ and Brno as its urban centres), the Future Region South-East (Carinthia, Styria, Burgenland, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy) as well as the EuRegio West/Nyugat Pannonia (Burgenland, Györ-Moson-Sopron, Zala and Vas).

 

The State of Burgenland has been promoting Renewable for many years, and set a goal to produce 100% electricity from RES by 2013. Burgenland is a rural region and has small controlled agricultural fields and forests. Due to the local availability of resources and the demand side, only decentralised systems and plants with potential are considered. Since July 2008, the Burgenlandische Energieagentur has been charged with the promotion of alternative energy systems.

 

The technology offensive in Burgenland, and the associated establishment of technology centres laid the foundations for future development in forward-looking fields of the secondary sector of the economy, or in service industries (regional strengths). This kind of forward-looking sector, which the technology centres are expected to address, includes: