Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

In Bangladesh, as elsewhere in the world, energy both commercial and noncommercial, serves as a major vehicle for development. In the last three decades, lopsided development efforts, without proper concern for the environment and productivity level of natural resources have created significant problems for development sustainability in Bangladesh. The energy sector faces deep crisis in meeting increasing energy demands for development of agriculture, industry, transportation and other sectors of economy. The country is heavily dependent on import of commercial fossil fuel energy, petroleum, petroleum products and coal. Such dependency makes Bangladesh economy more vulnerable to external price shocks in the international energy market. Non-commercial energy plays a dominant role in overall energy consumption in Bangladesh. Use of non commercial energy constitutes about two-thirds of the country’s total energy balance and is almost entirely supplied from the already overstressed biomass resources of the country. The population size and the vast majority living in rural areas have created immense pressure on the country’s biomass resources resulting in massive deforestation, decline of soil fertility and reduced productivity of agriculture. Desperate access to resources, particularly in rural areas is also causing uneven development of the rural population in Bangladesh. The development of the energy sector is a time bound issue and demands proper and timely attention. For Bangladesh, substitution of current biomass energy use with iv sustainable energy sources and their effective management is therefore critically important to sustain its overall development. There is ample scope for introducing energy efficient technologies and energy conservation measures in commercial and non-commercial energy use in Bangladesh. Effective and realistic energy planning and policy formulation is therefore crucially important for sustainable development in Bangladesh. The thesis explores the possibility of introducing an alternate approach to rural energy development through a series of case studies on selected technologies viz. biogas and improved efficiency cook stoves technology projects in the public sector and Grameen Shakti’s renewable energy programme in the private sector. Application of village energy supply system based on renewable energy technologies utilising abundantly available renewable resources of the country and already well in place technologies such as solar PV, bio digesters and energy storage batteries will be trailed within a framework that works with the participation of the (rural/village) community in running and managing energy supply in the villages. Introduction of a community based energy supply system Rural Energy Cooperative (REC) has been examined as a model for rural energy development, targeting economic, environmental and community development at the same time, which forms together the necessary foundation for sustainable development in (rural) Bangladesh, as well as in other parts of the developing world.

The global climate anomalies lead to significant disaster. Governments have attached great importance to develop related strategies. In 2009, climate change conference were held in Copenhagen, which gathered 194 representatives of member states to discuss the next phase in response to climate changing. The United States, China and other nation¡¦s leaders attend this conference, which shows the importance of the meeting. On the other hand, corporates started to focus on the green energy technology. On business efficiency and competitiveness, the enterprises for the timely introduction of green energy technology, may be able to provide better production and manufacturing. However, for enterprises to import new technology is often associated with high costs and high risks. Therefore, imported green energy technology has become a very challenging task. For the solar industry, as oil prices coupled with the rise of environmental awareness. The solar industry growth can be expected. Therefore, this study design AHP (Analysis Hierarchy Process, AHP) questionnaire for experts and scholars, government agencies and related companies conducted a questionnaire survey. Developing a general framework for evaluating and introducing solar energy technology into a technology company is presented. The results showed that a lot of experts put great emphasis on the gradual trend of green production. Cost criterions are also as the key consideration for those companies to import solar installation. For example, they consider the implementation costs and maintenance costs when those companies need to introduce solar energy equipment. Most important part is the policy criterion which is the key consideration for those companies. In the future, we need more experts and scholars, government agencies and related companies to do more efforts and promotion to this industry.

Over the past two decades, quite a few scientists agree that global warming is real, it¡¦s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence. The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable. Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. Recently, government, non-profit organizations and firms put great emphasis on environmental issues. They also encourage those firms to develop alternative energy technologies. For example, the American government wants to invest $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future. A lot of excellent companies put great emphasis on green supply chain. Some firms try to do some research and development on alternative energy technologies. In this way, these companies can enhance business efficiency and competitiveness, providing better productivity and process. Many manufacturing firms have tried to introduce alternative energy technology to improve its operation performance and to keep its competitive advantages. Nevertheless, introducing and evaluating alternative energy technology are quite demanding, difficulties being both conceptual and operational. At the same time, firms need to adjust the internal processes. In this way, adopting alternative energy technologies become a very challenging task. In this thesis, the criterion was sifted by using an Analysis Hierarchy Process (AHP) to develop a general framework for evaluating and introducing alternative energy technology into a manufacturing firm is presented.

This thesis is part of the major EU project EE-Highrise. The main objective of the EU project is to investigate high-rise buildings in different climates considering energy use, sustainability and cultural and economic differences in different countries. A demo high-rise building has been built in the capital of Slovenia. The purpose of this thesis was to build a model of the demo building in the simulation program IDA Indoor Climate and Environment. The model’s energy performance was then to be simulated in three different regions: Scandinavia, Central Europe and in the Mediterranean. Improvements to the climate shell and the ventilation system were to be examined and the results were then to be compared to European and Swedish Passive House certification schemes. A model was built in the simulation program IDA Indoor Climate and Environment according to the provided drawings of the demo building in Slovenia. Most of the building’s parameters were provided by the project group in Slovenia. When specific parameters were missing or difficult to motivate, standardized values were assumed. The model was modified into five cases: the base case, increased insulation of the external walls, improved glazing and frames for the windows, increased effective heat recovery efficiency and a combination of the energy saving measures. The model’s energy performance was then simulated at five different locations: Naples in Italy, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Malmo in southern Sweden, Karlstad in the middle of Sweden and Kiruna in the northern Sweden. When comparing the results to the requirements for the European Passive House certification, none of the investigated cases met the requirements due to a too large primary energy demand. However, if the requirement regarding the primary energy demand were to be disregarded, then the building in Slovenia would pass the requirements with an increased effective heat recovery efficiency for the ventilation system. Also the building in southern Sweden would pass the requirements with a combination of increased insulation for the external walls, improved windows and increased effective heat recovery efficiency. The Swedish Passive House certification would be fulfilled for the models in Malmo and Karlstad with an increased effective heat recovery efficiency, while the model in Kiruna did not pass the requirements. However, with a combination of the energy saving measures the model in Kiruna came very close to meeting the requirements.   The conclusion was that an increased effective heat recovery efficiency had the largest impact on the building’s space heating demand and that improving the windows increased the cooling demand in Naples by a large amount.

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With the threatening of global warming and energy crises, searching for renewable and green energy resources with reduced carbon emissions is one of the most urgent challenges to the sustainable development of human civilization. In the past decades, increasing research efforts have been committed to seek for clean and renewable energy sources as well as to develop renewable energy technologies. Mechanical motion ubiquitously exists in ambient environment and people’s daily life. In recent years, it becomes an attractive target for energy harvesting as a promising supplement to traditional fuel sources and a potentially alternative power source to battery-operated electronics. Until recently, the mechanisms of mechanical energy harvesting are limited to transductions based on piezoelectric effect, electromagnetic effect, electrostatic effect and magnetostrictive effect. Widespread usage of these techniques is likely to be shadowed by possible limitations, such as structure complexity, low power output, fabrication of high-quality materials, reliance on external power sources and little adaptability on structural design for different applications. In 2012, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), a creative invention for harvesting ambient mechanical energy based on the coupling between triboelectric effect and electrostatic effect has been launched as a new and renewable energy technology. The concept and design presented in this thesis research can greatly promote the development of TENG as both sustainable power sources and self-powered active sensors. And it will greatly help to define the TENG as a fundamentally new green energy technology, featured as being simple, reliable, cost-effective as well as high efficiency.

The overall purpose of the study was to examine the aesthetic impacts of wind farm obstruction lighting. The research problems investigated in this study were; aviation safety regulations for wind farm obstruction lighting in different countries, obstruction lighting technology, and the public attitudes towards wind farming. The research was designed taking into account the research problems, questions, and the researcher experience. Hence, mixed method approach was employed to collect as much, and as diverse data as possible. The sample was drawn focusing wind energy project developers, operators, and the owners. Seeking to build a detailed narrative, a web-based survey was conducted to gather the thoughts, and opinions of the sample population, in addition, to a thorough literature review conducted earlier. The key findings of this study are that the lighting system should be efficient to operate in terms of technology with least aesthetic impacts. Out-dated wind farm obstruction lighting systems are annoying, and contributes to overall aesthetic impacts that triggers nagetive attitudes towards wind farming. In addition, for wind farms near any aerodrome, infrared integrated into light emitting diodes obstruction lighting have minimal aesthetic impacts. Whereas, the radar-activated obstruction lighting is a better choice for wind farms further away from aerodromes. The study argued that understanding the affecting components of attitudes would give various stakeholders a realistic understanding about attitudes towards wind farming. This study concludes that the optimization of lighting angle, intensity, color, and luminance will help reducing the aesthetic impacts under the prevailing regulations, and mapping affective components of attitudes will help in better understanding the public support towards wind farming.

Energy intervention programs have gained prominence in governmental policies and development agendas as a prevailing practice of improving rural livelihoods and protecting local environment and resources in developing rural areas since early 1970s. In spite of the increasing evidences of small-scale renewable energy systems being advantageous over traditional ones towards rural sustainability, the introduction and diffusion of the new energy systems in many developing rural areas has suffered program ineffectiveness in terms of slow construction, limited utilization, and high risks of being idled or abandoned by the adopters. While there are substantial studies documenting the challenges of rural energy planning, few scholars have devoted to the processes and efficacy of the planning practice. Literature has obvious gaps between planning theory and rural energy planning practice as no prior academic efforts were uncovered to use planning theory to examine the rural energy planning practice and to provide directions to future practice. Meanwhile, literature suggests that the integration of efficacy-oriented and context-dependent principles of planning theory into the energy planning processes can contribute to the effectiveness of rural energy intervention programs. Vital to the integration is the conduct of a study that critically assesses the rural energy planning processes against the insights drawn from planning theory and then provides policy implications for bridging the gaps between theory and practice. A review of literature on energy, planning, and community development in relation to sustainability led to an evaluative framework containing 24 criteria which were aggregated into six groups of principles, i.e., equity, flexibility, efficiency, participation, continuity and reflectivity. The principles were coupled respectively focusing on the operationalization, implementation, and monitoring processes of rural energy planning. Employing a primary case study design, the researcher conducted the field study in southern China’s Hainan province to examine whether the aggregated criteria were upheld and performed in local practices. In the field research, the author collected relative information and data through interviews, surveys, secondary sources, and direct observation. The data were analyzed in a mix of inter-related qualitative and quantitative methods. Where possible, the author used triangulation to limit individual and methodological biases. Hainan’s rural energy intervention programs of introducing and diffusion renewable energy systems such as anaerobic digesters and solar heaters in developing rural areas were significant contents of the provincial eco-village program and eco-province strategy. Although the energy programs had satisfactory effectiveness sporadically in a few villages, the majority of the programs suffered from problems like slow construction, limited utilization, and high risks of being idled or abandoned by the adopters. A number of challenges were recognized and mentioned by the administrative interviewees, including financial, technical, social, cultural, institutional and other constraints that support and conform to the discussions in literature. The study advances the understandings by identifying the gaps between planning theory and local rural energy planning practice in Hainan. Specifically, the equity principle was recognized but not totally fulfilled; the flexibility principle remained contentious and singularly executed; the efficiency principle was accepted but performed without enough scrutiny; the participation principle was emphasized but challenging; the continuity principle was aware of but not compulsorily executed; and the reflectivity principle was vague and overlooked. The author further analyzes that there will be barriers at the micro, meso, and macro levels to impede the integration of planning theory into rural energy planning practice. Extending the findings to a broader discussion on planning for development projects in developing rural areas, the author highlights a number of external and internal problems that harm the program effectiveness and calls for immediate and meaningful attention to ensuring program effectiveness. Several suggestions are provided for policy reconsideration and reorientation.