When a wind farm is repowered, decommissioned turbines are discarded. This creates a stock of wind turbines that can be acquired for a fraction of the original cost, and refurbished. Taking advantage of the reduced price and the ruggedness of first generation wind turbines, new markets for sale of wind energy can be explored. This thesis first analyses the repowering background of Germany, Denmark, and other European countries, where transition to repowered or “second generation” wind farms is taking place. Then, a number of feasibility studies are reviewed to create a study framework, which will allow in-depth study of suitable energy markets. Using this framework, the suitability of four countries is analysed in detail: Djibouti, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania. Two countries are selected to perform a total of 6 site studies: Djibouti and Tanzania. Using WindPro 2.9, six model wind farms are simulated. A financial model is built, based on an NREL study, to analyse the economic viability of wind farms. Using the financial model, the levelized cost of energy is obtained, and used to evaluate the competitiveness of the model wind farms. A sensitivity study is carried out to identify the major influences on the LCOE. Using the cost data, the cost competitiveness of the proposed wind farms is discussed, including competitiveness in the target markets, and a cost comparison with commercial wind farms with new turbines is performed. Five out of six proposed wind farms are competitive in price in the target markets, and all achieve an average installation cost per kW of one third of conventional wind farms, while producing energy in the low range of commercial projects, and even lower for sites with excellent wind resources.

Yes / Reviews and ratings of consumers towards a product impact consumer decision-making and their perceptions. Such information is key in measuring consumer satisfaction and net promoter scores. However, when the reviewed products are refurbished, consumer reviews become more important because information influences consumer behaviour and attitude toward looped products. This research explores the decision-influencing attributes of consumers while purchasing refurbished goods using quantitative and qualitative methods. Online after-sales 1986 laptop customers’ review and rating data in the public domain were analysed to reveal the decision-influencing attributes and their impact on potential consumers. The study envisions assisting the operations of sellers in the refurbished market by strengthening their businesses' value proposition and stimulating reverse logistics entrepreneurs to use the opportunity. Review data containing lifecycle valuation of old laptops induced feature extraction by machine learning applications. It is beneficial to sellers in the refurbished product segment. It provides information to strengthen their value proposition and is informative to entrepreneurs wanting to enter the segment. Based on the text analysis of consumer reviews, the study's results show that price, brand, design, performance, services, and utility influence consumers. The frequency analysis technique was used to extract attributes, followed by content analysis and feature selection using SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) for exploring correlations between features and star ratings. Lastly, multinomial logistic regression was used to validate the generated model. The results show that brand, design, price, and utility are the most prominent attributes influencing consumers' decision-making with positive sentiments. In contrast, performance and services often generate neutral and negative sentiments. / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 27 Dec 2024.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to evaluate different alternatives of renewal regarding an already existing building. The case study building is located in the Ulleråker area in Uppsala, Sweden and is an old mental hospital building from the 1950’s which Uppsala Municipality wishes to restore as part of a bigger investment in the neighborhood. The different alternatives that will be investigated are refurbishment, with different insulation thickness, and a complete demolition and reconstruction of a new building with either wood or concrete. Carbon dioxide emissions connected to buildings will be calculated and analyzed as two elements, one being embodied carbon dioxide, and one being energy usage. Other aspects of interest, the economy and cultural values of the area, will be discussed. To estimate the amount of CO2 emissions, several life cycle assessments will be executed through the software One Click LCA (2015). Calculations will be done by hand in order to estimate the energy usage. Information and data are partly obtained from Uppsala Municipality, partly from literature and available resources. The results show that each option has a different advantage, the refurbishment resulting in considerably lower embodied carbon (114 kg CO2e/m2) but higher energy usage (95 kWh/m2 per year) as compared to the new concrete construction with larger amount of embodied carbon (279 kg CO2e/m2) but lower energy usage (44 kWh/m2 per year). This leads to a conclusion showing that a deep refurbishment is the best option regarding both embodied carbon and energy usage.

In Sweden there is a shortage of housing whilst old, abandoned industrial buildingstake up space on desirable land. These buildings generally do not live up to today’s standards regarding comfort and energy efficiency and are therefore not used today. If these buildings were to be renovated into housing, they could help remedy the housing shortage. However, many of these buildings are protected from distortion by law which makes renovation and remodeling difficult. The purpose of this work has been to provide solutions for how an old industrialbuilding with cultural-historical values can be remodeled into housing. The solutions consist of floor plans and drawings modeled in Autodesk Revit. The possibilities and difficulties with this kind of project as well as solutions to expected problems are also presented in the report. This work was executed as a case study on one of the old locomotive depots in Bollnäs. Since the building for this project is an old locomotive depot, it is positioned close to the railroad. Noise and ground pollution are therefore important to consider and demand certain measures, for example retaining walls, noise barriers and excavation of polluted soil. An energy simulation of the building was made using BV2 to determine the energy usage of the building. The walls, roof and slab were additionally insulated for the purpose of meeting the demands of energy efficiency and comfort defined by BBR 29. The insulation had to be internally constructed in order to avoid distortion of the facade. Additionally, all windows and doors had to be made energy efficient while remaining aesthetically preserved. Internal insulation is generally problematic due to problems with moisture. The solution to this problem was to insulate the walls with polyurethane foam and the slab with cellular plastic. In order to make the building energy efficient, the building should be heated using district heating in combination with photovoltaic panels. This building is well suited for solar panels due to the large, black metal sheet roof and shadow free placement. The study shows the complexity of refurbishing this type of building. The renovation is extensive, and the floor plans are characterized by compromises. It is possible to renovate the building without distorting it. A better alternative would be to use the building for other functions such as a store, restaurant or bar. / I Sverige råder det bostadsbrist samtidigt som gamla industribyggnader stårövergivna på attraktiv mark. En anledning till att dessa byggnader i nuläget inteanvänds är att de av byggnadstekniska skäl inte uppfyller dagens krav på komfort och energieffektivitet. Om dessa byggnader skulle kunna göras om till bostäder vore deten lösning för att minska bostadsbristen. Många av dessa byggnader omfattas dock av förvanskningsförbud och varsamhetskrav vilket försvårar renovering och ombyggnation. Syftet med arbetet har varit att ta fram ett ändringsförslag på hur en gammal industribyggnad med ett kulturhistoriskt värde kan göras om till bostäder. Arbetet har också gått ut på att undersöka vilka möjligheter och svårigheter som finns vid ett sådant ändringsarbete och ta fram lösningar till eventuella problem. Arbetet utfördes i form av en fallstudie på ett av lokstallen i Bollnäs. Då byggnaden i projektet är ett gammalt lokstall ligger denna nära tågspåren. Buller och markföroreningar är därför viktigt att ta hänsyn till och kräver åtgärder i formav uppförandet av bullerplank och schaktning. En energisimulering gjordes av byggnaden i BV2 för att få ett värde på byggnadensenergianvändning. För att byggnaden ska kunna hålla en god komfort och klarakraven i BBR 29 tilläggsisoleras klimatskalet. Varsamhetskravet gör att all tilläggsisolering måste ske på byggnadens insida. Alla fönster och dörrar byts ut till energismarta sådana under förutsättning att de är estetiskt likvärdiga mot de ursprungliga för att motverka förvanskning. Att tilläggsisolera en gammal byggnad invändigt är ur fuktsynpunkt negativt. Lösningen på detta var att isolera väggarna med polyuretanskum och betongplattan underifrån med cellplast. För energieffektiviseringen valdes också att byggnaden skulle värmas med fjärrvärme då den ligger centralt och i nära anslutning tillfjärrvärmenätet. Denna typ av byggnad är väl lämpad för användning av solenergi tack vare dess stora svarta plåttak och skuggfria placering. Därmed valdes fjärrvärmen att kombineras med solcellspaneler. Studien visar att ändringsarbeten på denna typ av byggnader är komplexa. Energirenoveringen är omfattande och arbetet med planlösningarna präglas av kompromisser. Det är fullt möjligt att energirenovera byggnaden utan att förvanska den. Byggnaden i det här projektet vore dock bättre lämpad för exempelvis butik, restaurang eller krog än för lägenheter.

Physical customer products have an environmental impact, such as greenhouse gas emissions, due to the use of virgin resources from cradle-to-grave, especially when the origin of the material is from fossil resources. This thesis aims to create a circular business model, by investigating the product ‘stroller’ and place it in a Product Service System, where the user subscribes to the Stroller Service System. This means that the product gets a service function: ‘transportation of a child’, mapped with a user-centered approach. The main objective is to lower the ecological footprint by adopting a modular design including bio-based material and stainless steel, and also include services to address economical and social sustainability goals. The methodology that is used is divided into two parts: Status Analysis – which consists of stroller related literature study, literature review and case study, and the second part is the Design Process – creating the product-, service- and system design. The results are grounded in user insights, life cycle assessment and co-creation with experts, where the conclusions are that a PSS Model Stroller should be used by 4-6 users which translate to about 15-20 years of usage for the steel layer. The way of refurbishing the strollers is done by contract workers that exist where the users exists, i.e. Ease Stroller Hub, who change the bio-based material in-between the use-phases and hands over the refurbished stroller to the next user. Add-on services of access to car pools and grocery delivery is included in the system to ease the stroller user’s everyday life and is a way to designing out the need of owning a car, to lower the overall environmental impact.

As there are more than 1.4 billion smartphones sold every year in the world and around four million smartphones in Sweden. In recent years there has been a growing concern to move from a linear economic system to a circular economic system. Smartphones and other electronic equipment stand for the largest growing waste streams in the European Union. The rising prices of raw materials used in smartphone manufacturing over the last decades, along with the fact that these minerals are being mined in conflict stricken areas and the growing environmental awareness among people makes the refurbished smartphone’s market very current. Thus, it is of great interest to investigate consumer behaviour linked to refurbished smartphones as it is still in its early stages. As such, many of the barriers identified in this thesis can be linked to the communication of refurbished smartphones. The purpose of this thesis is to get a deeper understanding of how companies can communicate to break the barriers that exists for the consumer acceptance of refurbished smartphones in the Swedish market. Earlier studies have also focused on refurbishment as a concept rather than the consumer’s responses towards it. The study will be conducted in Sweden which has not been done previously. Therefore, our study will contribute to a deeper understanding of the consumer behaviour in the refurbished smartphone market in Sweden and thus aid companies in their communication of refurbished smartphones. To fulfil the purpose, a qualitative study has been conducted through semi-structured interviews. The sample groups were environmental enthusiasts, technology experts, refurbished product buyers, second hand buyers and companies. From the interviews five themes were derived: initial response, benefits, risks, barriers and communication. The findings and conclusions of the thesis are derived from the themes and subthemes that were created. There are many barriers and risks that make people avoid purchasing refurbished smartphones. The findings suggest that the consumers’ initial response are generally very positive and many consumers would consider a refurbished smartphone as their next smartphone purchase. Another finding is that a lack of knowledge about refurbishment lead to doubts about refurbished smartphones. The barriers found were lack of awareness, lack of thrill of newness, naming of refurbished products and lack of knowledge. The largest barrier, was lack of awareness. A solution to resolve this barrier could be to communicate the refurbishment process. A major finding was that that the environmental aspects were a vital purchase criteria for the consumers, however, not the most vital aspect. Moreover, societal benefits were raised regarding refurbished products in terms of benefitting the entire society. The biggest risk detected in the study was the performance, risk as the consumer may believe that the smartphone will be in a poor condition even though it has been refurbished. A big risk was the financial risk in terms of the substantial price for a refurbished smartphone. To reduce this the companies could adapt to the market standard and sell their refurbished smartphones in package deals. Our findings suggest that price should be communicated in combination with warranty and also environmental aspects, however, the environmental aspect is often abstract. The companies should consider using branding more to communicate these messages. Word of mouth was seen to be important and companies should utilise customer reviews more. In terms of emotional and rational appeals both should be used, however, what appeal that the companies should focus on emphasise on is not obvious.

Electric motors are one of the biggest consumers of electricity in the world with a consumption of almost 45 % and it is predicted to increase. Since electric motors play an important role today and in the future, it is important that businesses take their responsibility to make them as sustainable as they can possibly be. Today’s product development models are often based on the idea that the customer buys the product and is responsible for the products use phase. This results in the manufacturer focusing on getting a competitive price for the customer by reducing the cost for manufacturing and delivery, which often is negative for the customer. The latter phases, use and end-of-life, are often the greatest contributors of costs and environmental impact. One way for businesses to take their responsibility is to have an environmental focus throughout their products life cycles, i.e., to apply a circular business model. This primarily means to focus on the main principles of circular economy: to reduce, reuse and recycle. ABB is a company in the electric motor and drive industry with ambitious commitments for 2030 which includes to have at least 80 % of their products and solutions covered by a circularity approach and achieve carbon neutrality across their own operations. This Master thesis studies the environmental impact of an ABB synchronous medium voltage motor and drive during their life cycle. This thesis also studies how a circular business model can affect the environmental impact the motor contribute with today. Assessing the environmental impact was done with a life cycle perspective in accordance to ISO 14044, using the world’s most used tool for these kinds of analyses, SimaPro. The results of the assessment showed that the total climate impact during the whole life cycle of the motor and drive is 4.38•106 kg CO2 eq. The use phase of the motor and drive was the biggest contributor, with almost 99 % of total climate impact. The electricity used in this phase and the long lifetime of these machines, in this case 20 years, contributes to the great impact. Important environmental impact categories identified from studying the motor and drive during their lifecycles are ionizing radiation, human toxicity (both non-cancer effects and cancer effects) and freshwater ecotoxicity. The results also showed that by only looking at the contribution of the components of the motor, the climate impact is 7.35•104 kg CO2 eq. A total of 43 % of the emissions comes from the stator and 30 % from the rotor. For the drive the total impact is in total 6.83•104 kg CO2 eq. The biggest contributor is the semiconductor, with 50 % of the total impact of the machine followed by the housing with 21 %. Answering research question two, regarding the circular business model, was done by interviewing key players at ABB and people with knowledge in the area as well by studying literature. Potential measures for a circular business model were for example increasing the efficiency of the motor, designing for refurbishment and recycling, partnerships and changing the motor application after use. Increased efficiency of the motor was identified as a very impactful measure since it can affect the use phase, which is the biggest contributor of climate impact. The identified measures impact the material and energy flows in different ways, most of them prevent extraction of new raw material. This study can be used for an indication of where the environmental hotspots are for a MV electric motor and drive. It can be concluded that a circular business model could bring benefits on material and energy flows such as reduced energy use in the use phase, decreased use of raw material in production and reduced use of fuel for transportation.