There are a number of factors that influence both the physical and the economical performance of a photovoltaic solar energy (PV) installation. The aim of this project was to develop a simulation and optimization model with which these factors could be analyzed and the PV installation optimized. By supplying the model with meteorological data, electricity consumption data and available building surfaces the model finds the optimum PV installation. The output consists of both physical and economical performance as well as information on how to distribute and install the PV modules on the available building surfaces. The model was validated using annual and hourly measurement data from Swedish PV installations. The validation shows that the model is a reliable tool for simulating the electricity generation from a PV system. In the second part of the project the model was used to evaluate the PV potential at two different hospitals and one health care center within the Uppsala County, Sweden. The model was also used to study the effect of different house orientations on the PV potential in Swedish neighborhoods. The physical and economical PV potentials are high for the hospitals and the health carecenter. This is mainly due to a high electricity demand but also due to a good match between the load profile and the PV electricity generation profile. The study on different neighborhoods shows that for gable roof buildings it might be more favorable to plan the houses so that the roofs face east-west rather than north-south. / Det är många faktorer som påverkar de fysikaliska och ekonomiska resultaten av en planerad solcellsinstallation. Syftet med det här projektet var att utveckla en simulerings- och optimeringsmodell med vars hjälp det skulle gå att analysera dessa frågor och hitta det bästa installationsalternativet i varje enskilt fall. Modellen som togs fram i detta projekt kan både studera ett givet installationsalternativ och räkna ut den mest optimala installationen utifrån de av användaren specificerade målen och begränsningarna. För att kunna göra detta behöver modellen förses med meteorologiska data för den aktuella platsen, elkonsumtionsdata från det aktuella objektet samt mått och orienteringar för de tillgängliga byggnadsytorna. Dessutom behöver användaren ange vissa ekonomiska parametrar såsom exempelvis avbetalningstid, ränta och aktuellt solcellspris. Resultatet från modellen består av både fysikaliska och ekonomiska resultat, exempelvis timvis nettoflöde av elektricitet, avbetalningstid och genomsnittligt elpris från solcellssystemet. I optimeringsresultatet redovisas hur solcellerna bör fördelas och installeras på de olika byggnadsytorna för att ge bäst resultat enligt målspecifikationen. För att validera modellen jämfördes dess simuleringsresultat med årliga och timvisa mätvärden från svenska solcellsanläggningar. Dessutom jämfördes modellens resultat med motsvarande resultat från andra simuleringsverktyg för solceller. Valideringsresultaten visar att modellen är ett pålitligt verktyg för att simulera elgenereringen från solcellsystem med olika moduler, växelriktare och installationssätt. Som ett delresultat vid modellutvecklingen simulerades ett stort antal olika solcellssystempå platta och svagt lutande tak. Utifrån dessa simuleringar utformades ett antal tumregler för hur uppvinklade moduler på platta eller svagt lutande tak skall monteras. Tumreglerna visar vilket avstånd mellan modulraderna och vilken vinkel på modulerna som ger den högsta taktäckningsgarden (största installationen) vid olika övre gränser för de interna skuggningsförlusterna. I projektets andra del användes modellen för att utvärdera solcellspotentialen på Akademiska sjukhuset, Enköpings lasarett och Tierps vårdcentral. Resultaten som levererades till Landstinget i Uppsala län visar att både den tekniska och den ekonomiska solcellspotentialen är stor på dessa enheter. Huvudanledning till den höga potentialen är att elbehovet är väldigt stort på dessa enheter samt att solcellernas elgenereringsprofil stämmer mycket väl överens med när elbehovet är som störst. Modellen användes även för att studera hur olika byggnadsorienteringar påverkar solcellspotentialen i olika tänkbara svenska bostadsområden. De olika resultaten från dessa studier visar att det i många fall är bättre att orientera byggnader med sadeltak så att taken pekar i östlig och västlig riktning snarare än mot syd och nord. Därmed föreslås en översyn avde nu rådande rekommendationerna att optimera huvudorienteringarna av taken mod syd vid detaljplanering av stadsdelar.

This degree project aims at developing a concept for how to use solar energy to pump up water. The target audience is people living in areas where the functioning of the electricity and water network is absent. In these areas, the hand-powered water pump is the most common technology. The degree project's goal is to find an economically viable alternative to the time consuming hand-powered water pumps. The power comes from solar energy. Studies have shown that 90% of the hand pumps that have been installed have broken down within the first three years. This is because of an incorrect basic design that severely shortens lifetime. How would a simple and robust design look like? An information seeking phase about the conditions and techniques that exist in these areas, were the basis for the requirements of the concept. Because of this the authors chose a concept similar to a simple steam engine. The pump uses vaporized water, by means of concentrating sunlight to pump up water. In total, 33 different concepts were created. The concepts were filtered in three stages that resulted in a final concept. The final concept contains a reflective dish that concentrates the sunlight to a receiver where the water evaporates. The built up pressure forces up water towards the surface from a tank located below the groundwater. The system is designed to supply 25 families with 2.5 cubic meters of water a day. The pump is working during the daily 8 hours of sunshine. The system will have an expected low efficiency <5.3% which is the theoretical maximum efficiency. Further development of the system requires a detailed analysis of the situation on the ground. Tests should be performed to examine how well the technology works and how sensitive the system is to disturbances.

This thesis is a study of the geometric design of solar concentrating collectors. In this work, a numerical optimization methodology was developed and applied to various problems in linear solar concentrator design, in order to examine overall optimization success as well as the effect of various strategies for improving computational efficiency. Optimization is performed with the goal of identifying the concentrator geometry that results in the greatest fraction of incoming solar radiation absorbed at the receiver surface, for a given collector configuration. Surfaces are parametrically represented in two-dimensions, and objective function evaluations are performed using various Monte Carlo ray-tracing techniques. Design optimization is performed using a gradient-based search scheme, with the gradient approximated through finite-difference estimation and updates based on the direction of steepest-descent. The developed geometric optimization methodology was found to perform with mixed success for the given test problems. In general, in every case a significant improvement in performance was achieved over that of the initial design guess, however, in certain cases, the quality of the identified optimal geometry depended on the quality of the initial guess. It was found that, through the use of randomized quasi-Monte Carlo, instead of traditional Monte Carlo, overall computational time to converge is reduced significantly, with times typically reduced by a factor of four to six for problems assuming perfect optics, and by a factor of about 2.5 for problems assuming realistic optical properties. It was concluded that the application of numerical optimization to the design of solar concentrating collectors merits additional research, especially given the improvements possible through quasi-Monte Carlo techniques.

The increasing price of fuel and energy, combined with environmental laws and regulations, have led many different energy producers to integrate renewable, clean energy sources with non-renewable ones, forming the idea of energy hubs. Energy hubs are systems of technologies where different energy forms are conditioned and transformed. These energy hubs offer many advantages compared to traditional single-energy sources, including increased reliability and security of meeting energy demand, maximizing use of energy and materials resulting in increasing the overall system efficiency. In this thesis, we consider an energy hub consisting of natural gas (NG) turbines for the main source of energy— electricity and heat— combined with two renewable energy sources—wind turbines and PV solar cells. The hub designed capacity is meant to simulate and replace the coal-fired Nanticoke Generating Station with NG-fired power plant. The generating station is integrated with renewable energy sources, including wind and solar. The hub will also include water electrolysers for hydrogen production. The hydrogen serves as an energy storage vector that can be used in transportation applications, or the hydrogen can be mixed into the NG feed stream to the gas turbines to improve their emission profile. Alkaline electrolysers’ technology is fully mature to be applied in large industrial applications. Hydrogen, as an energy carrier, is becoming more and more important in industrial and transportation sectors, so a significant part of the thesis will focus on hydrogen production and cost. In order to achieve the goal of replacing the Nanticoke Coal-fired Power Plant by introducing the energy hub concept, the study investigates the modeling of the combined system of the different technologies used in terms of the total energy produced, cost per kWh, and emissions. This modeling is done using GAMS® in order to make use of the optimization routines in the software. The system is modeled so that a minimum cost of energy is achieved taking into account technical and thermodynamic constrains. Excess energy produced during off-peak demand by wind turbines and PV solar cells is used to feed the electrolyser to produce H2 and O2. Through this method, a significant reduction in energy cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are achieved, in addition to an increased overall efficiency.

Overall aim of this master’s thesis is to describe and identify perceived barriers in Swedish businesses within solar energy field and analyze, based on four theoretical viewpoints, how these barriers can be handled. In other words how can the barriers be overcome or eliminated to better succeed in the commercialization process? The method applied is qualitative in which data has been collected through phone interviews originated from seven Cleantech businesses which operate within solar energy. Furthermore this thesis has a descriptive- and an explorative purpose. Empirical findings have showed that barriers depend upon the company itself, but also the community, academic- and governmental institutions. Some businesses do not have an international point of view, instead they have costs aspects in mind. Priorities seem to be a crucial factor when it comes to commercialization. The Swedish government does not contribute enough support to solar energy sector. There is lack of combination in commercialization and technical aspects within the educational system.

This research has generated interesting findings from the inductive approach and the qualitative methods that were used in the inquiry process. Thanks to the literature review, the semi-structure interviews, a focus group and secondary data it was possible to obtain the necessary information to answer the research question: How do ecological, economic and social sustainability influence employee motivation? In order to answer this question, two sub-questions were considered first, namely What constitutes sustainability in the company-specific context of Wagner & Co Solartechnik? and Does sustainability motivate people? The answer to the latter question has to be yes, as the analysis revealed numerous linkages. From the data gathered, it is apparent that economic sustainability constitutes the most basic level of sustainability at Wagner Solar. Although the influence of money has its clear limitations, an increase in material orientation could be observed compared to previous. At the company level, ecological sustainability manifests itself as ‘striving for the energy turnaround’. The majority of employees show, as their most important source of motivation, an interest in solar technology as well as a concern for increased eco-efficiency. The information gathered has permitted an assessment of whether the company hires people that are already committed to the company’s vision and mission, or whether the company makes an effort to socialise employees. While this does not seem to be the case it is apparent that the company cultivates a communication and information policy that perpetuates its values. Wagner Solar also exhibits a strong and consistent corporate culture. In terms of social sustainability, democratic decision-making appears to exert the greater amount of influence on employee motivation, while the influence of employee ownership is comparatively diminished. The company appears to both attract and seek out employees who value the ability to work autonomously, partially explained by the German nationality but not exclusively. Positive work environment and good collaborations between colleagues were deemed another important motivational factor, both by the interviewees and the intra-company survey. However, working at Wagner Solar is not without its perceived negatives. These are mostly related to the company’s unique decision-making structures, the use of the language, and possible “island” mentality that some departments might suffer. The study also aimed to analyse the influence of different motivators on employees. When contemplating which pillars of sustainability motivate the most, the analysis of the main motivators revealed that the most important pillar is the social one, since most of the participants have one or more main motivators connected to it. Overall, the impression is that the social values of Wagner Solar are the most pervasive, affecting attitudes and behaviours such as autonomy and responsibility, and, therefore, constitute the main motivators for its employees. The ecological pillar also noticeably influences employee motivation, while the economic pillar is the least influential. / MSPME - Masters in Strategic Project Management European

Limited water exchange shrimp culture technology is commonly used today in many shrimp farms in Vietnam to reduce water usage, input of diseases and discharge of nutrient-rich effluents into environment as well as to increase the production per unit area. However, a remaining problem in this technology is that the water quality in shrimp ponds will be reduced due to limitation of water exchange for a long period. The accumulation of inorganic components such as waste feed, bacterial deposits or other biological debris at the pond bottom will lead to low dissolved oxygen, high ammonia-nitrogen level, high fecal coliform bacteria and high turbidity which cause a severe degradation of water quality and detriment to shrimp growth and survival. To solve this remaining problem, an autonomous water-cleaning machine for shrimp ponds was designed to control the waste accumulation in the pond. This is an effective solution to replace manual cleaning methods for water quality management in shrimp farming in the coastal area of the Mekong delta of Vietnam. Especially, this technique can be used for biosecure shrimp production systems according to GMP standards to meet the objectives for sustainable development of shrimp aquaculture in Vietnam. / Kỹ thuật nuôi tôm không thay nước đang được sử dụng rộng rãi ở các trại nuôi tôm Việt Nam vì giúp giảm lượng nước sử dụng, hạn chế thải nước vào môi trường và giúp tăng diện tích nuôi trồng tôm. Tuy nhiên, bản thân kỹ thuật này cũng tạo nên một sản phẩm chất thải là phân tôm, thức ăn và chế phẩm sinh học xử lý nước dư thừa. Chất thải này dần dần tích tụ dưới đáy ao tạo thành lớp bùn độc, rất thiếu ôxy và chứa nhiều chất gây hại như ammonia, nitrite, hydrogen sulfide. Để tránh làm giảm diện tích ao nuôi do chất thải tích tụ làm tôm lảng tránh và tăng mật độ tôm nuôi trồng, thiết bị tự hành thu gom chất thải làm sạch nước trong vuông nuôi tôm đã được nghiên cứu, thiết kế và chế tạo thành công. Thiết bị đã thay thế các hoạt động làm sạch chất thải thủ công của con người, không sử dụng các nguồn năng lượng gây ô nhiễm, giảm nhu cầu về điện góp phần phát triển sản xuất tôm sạch đạt chuẩn GMP và phát triển bền vững ở các tỉnh ven biển miền Tây Việt Nam.

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.

The aerodynamical design of a solar race car is presented together with the racing strategy. Dealing with the design and the racing strategy simultaneously offers the advantage of having improvements on both, using the results of each other. Besides these, as a prerequisite of the design, the decision on number of the wheels is discussed. If the three wheel configuration is selected, the requirements for having the desired performance while eliminating the risk of tipping over are inspected. In the aerodynamics analyses, the software packages Gambit and Fluent are utilized. Using the results of the CFD simulations, aerodynamical shape of the body is analyzed to determine weak points of the design, causing early boundary layer detachment and higher drag. The drag coefficient of the body is also obtained from CFD runs at various speeds. It was determined that the selected NACA profile performs well, under racing speeds but the canopy design is open to improvement. The racing strategy is analyzed using the race track information together with the design of the solar car. A program was created to determine the position, velocity, acceleration and power consumption versus time. Also the lap time and total energy consumption can be obtained and these are vital data while determining their sensitivity to mass or to resistances. By the help of this program, the experience gained by completing laps on the circuit can be partially gained without actual laps.

Factors of very rapidly rising oil prices, the running out time limits on continued use of fossil fuels, as well as elements of the Kyoto Protocol, have greatly arouses the increasing emphasis on natural and renewable energy sources. 40 minutes of total solar radiation on earth could provide enough power to meet the energy needs of all human beings for approximately one year. The potential of solar energy is virtually limitedless. Moreover, by means of solar powered batteries, solar energy can be directly converted to electric power. Since it neither pollutes the environment or ecology, solar is an extremely clean source of energy. The life-span of solar cell is very long, possibly 20 years or more. The capability of solar batteries to provide energy is approximately proportional to the intensity of the sunlight. This thesis proposes the use of Artificial intelligence for "Sun Track Solar Energy System". This system employs Fuzzy Logic Control Theory, combined with Grey Relational Analysis, for tracking the angle of the sun, and further control the motor to adjust the angle for tracking, so direct sunlight could be acquired to increase power output. As a result of the experiment, comparing the electricity generated from the fix angle solar battery with the AI-based Sun Track Solar Energy System, the latter one has an efficiency increase up to 23% for the same amount of sunlight.