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.

The indoor positioning system is a series of networking systems used to monitor/locate objects at indoor area as opposed that of GPS which does the same at outdoor. The increase in the popularity of the Internet of Things made the demand for Bluetooth Low Energy technology more and more essential due to their compatibility in the smartphones which makes it to access easier. The BLE’s reliable signal and accuracy in calculating the distance has a cutting edge on others in IPS. In this thesis, the Bluetooth Low Energy indoor positioning system was designed and implemented in the office area, and the positionofIoTdevicesweremonitored. OntheIoTdevices,thebeaconswereplaced. And thesebeaconswerecoveringtheofficearea. Thereceiver,smartphoneinourcase,recorded theReceivedSignalStrengthIndicationofthetransmittedsignalsfromthebeaconswithin the range of the signal and stored the collected data in a database. Two experiments have beenconducted. Oneisforbeaconsthatarestationaryandonethatismoving. Toevaluate these experiments, a few tests were performed to predict the position of beacons based on therecordedreceivedsignalstrength’s. Inthecaseofstationarybeacons, itoffersaccuracy range from 1 m to 5 m, and 3 m to 9.5 m in anticipating the position of each beacon in the case of moving beacon. This methodology was a mixture of fingerprinting and an algorithm of multilateration. Finally, the experiments show that the algorithm used provides the most accurate indoor position using BLE beacons that can be monitored through an Android-based application in real-time.

The threat of human induced climate change is imminent. The reason is an everyincreasing demand for energy and products, producing more and more greenhousegas emissions. Everybody needs to take responsibility now. The estimations are thatwith 2% annual energy savings from residential households 12TWh and 3.3 billionmetric tonnes of CO2 can be saved per year. Greenely, a startup from KIC InnoEnergy,wants to engage residential households to change their energy behaviour athome. They combine a smartphone application with the smart meter infrastructureto reduce households energy demand. Changing behaviour is complicated and researchprior to this thesis revealed that information and economic incentives aloneare not sufficient.A simple and proven technique to change behaviour is Nudging. A gentle pushin the right direction while leaving the freedom of choice. A popular example is aprinted fly in the men’s urinal. It nudges them to aim at the fly. The cleaning costswere reduced by 80% at the Schiphol Airport Amsterdam.Without application usage change is impossible for Greenely. Their main contacttool to households is a smartphone application. The smartphone market is vast andcompetition between applications is strong. Therefore the system outline needs toprecede Nudging for ongoing engagement and long term change. To achieve thatGamification practices are implemented. It is the incorporation of game design intonon-gaming contexts to achieve engagement through motivation and fun.This master thesis is done in cooperation with Greenely and focuses on residentialdemand reduction schemas, Nudging and Gamification. The aim is to improvetheir actual application and create an outline for an improved version that promoteslong term behaviour change. The result incorporates the most suitable features fromthe relevant topics and enables long term change.

Climate change and renewable energy technologies are internationally discussed topics. Recently the subject was discussed during the Paris climate conference, COP21. Which lead to the establishing of the first ever universal agreement, legally binding climate deal, which include 195 countries around the world. With the goal to decrease global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius the need of new innovative technologies are increasing dramatically.   This thesis will examine the characteristics of renewable energy technology investment behavior by identifying drivers and forces for companies to invest in relatively new and less mature technologies, which are usually associated with high investment costs. Is it possible to financially justify investments in renewable energy technologies during the current market situation with historically low energy prices and with a production surplus? By examining the market and investments the aim is to identify and understand what drives companies to invest in renewable energy technologies and if it is profitable from a financial sustainable perspective.   The main results and derived conclusions are that RET investments behavior are influenced by several forces and drivers. The findings indicate that investments in RETs aren’t necessarily economical sustainable but rather that other objectives are of more importance than profitability in the short term.

Energy is essential for economic development in Africa. The current electrification figures show that countries in sub-Saharan Africa are facing major challenges in reaching positive economic growth and supplying basic energy services to rural communities. Sustainable energy technologies are available and can be used to great effect in Africa to alleviate this problem. Sustainable energy technologies can contribute to job creation and economic development. The implementation of renewable energy technologies in sub-Saharan Africa to date however has not always been successful due to both technical and non-technical factors. Prior to this study a comprehensive framework of factors to select renewable energy technologies did not exist. The purpose of this research was to develop such a framework and to validate it by means of empirical research. Triangulation of methodologies was used to determine the framework of factors. The analysis of the literature investigated renewable energy technologies and their application, the challenges in renewable energy technologies for implementation in Africa and the selection methods in the fields of project, portfolio, programme and technology management. This was followed by a focus group with three experts in which thirty eight factors that need to be taken into account during the selection of renewable energy technologies in Africa were identified. The factors identified by the focus group were confirmed and the eleven most applicable factors were selected during a two-round Delphi study. Finally case studies on the implementation of renewable energy technologies were undertaken in three countries. These case studies confirmed the eleven factors identified during the Delphi study and identified a further two factors which needed to be added to the framework. The final framework proposed in this study consists of thirteen factors that need to be considered before deciding on the technology appropriate for a specific implementation. For the implementation of the technology to succeed, it must be ensured that the technology can be maintained and supported on site over the life cycle of the technology, and that sufficient skills and resources exist to implement and maintain the technology. Sites for implementation of the technology must be selected in places where local champions exist to continue supporting the technology after the implementing agency has left, the community has the will to adopt the technology in the long term, sites are available for implementing pilot sites and sufficient sites with the correct characteristics are available for long term implementation. The technology must also contribute to economic development by creating jobs or improving the economic situation of households, and financing must be made available to ensure large scale adoption. Local businesses which aid with implementation need to have business management and technical skills as well as the financial capacity to implement the technology. Government support of the implementation of the technology is essential and the environmental benefits of the technology must be clear from the outset. This report presents a framework that includes both the criteria and measures to be used for the selection of renewable energy technologies in Africa. Further work is required to implement these criteria and measures in a selection methodology. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) / unrestricted

The degree project was carried out in collaboration with Halmstad Fastighet AB. Two separate buildings with different uses of energy have been analyzed. The focus was on evaluating near-zero energy houses with solar power plants and associated battery storage to investigate profitability and dimensioning to form the basis for future constructions. Both properties are near-zero energy houses but differ in the use of electrical energy. It is currently unclear how the change in the dimensioning of the solar power plant and the battery storage will affect the profitability of two properties with different uses of energy. The method was quantitative. Simulation models in the Polysun software were created with the properties' reference house. Based on the simulations, profitability calculations were made to describe the difference in profit when changing the dimensioning. The work concludes that the total profitability increases with the size of the solar power plant, regardless of energy use, and battery storage is not profitable without price changes. / Examensarbetet gjordes i samarbete med Halmstad Fastighet AB. Två olika fastigheter med olika elanvändning har analyserats, där fokuset låg på att utvärdera nära-nollenergihus med solkraftsanläggningar och tillhörande batterilager för att undersöka lönsamhet och dimensionering som ska ligga till grund för framtida byggnationer.  Båda fastigheterna är nära-nollenergihus men skiljer sig åt i användning av elenergi. Det är idag oklart hur förändringen av dimensioneringen av solkraftsanläggningen och batterilagret påverkar lönsamheten i två fastigheter med skilda användning av elenergi. Metoden är av kvantitativ karaktär. Simuleringsmodeller i programvaran Polysun skapades med två fastigheter och dess solkraftsanläggningar med tillhörande batterilager som referens.Utifrån simuleringarna gjordes lönsamhetsberäkningar för att beskriva skillnad i vinst vid förändring av dimensionering. Slutsatserna av arbetet är att den totala lönsamheten ökar ju större solkraftsanläggningen är oavsett elenergianvändning och batterilagret är idag inte lönsamt utan prisförändringar.

The research work that underpins this thesis aims to investigate the viability of renewable energy technologies (RETs) and to develop a RETs implementation framework for providing sustainable electricity to Nigeria’s rural areas. As a result of electricity supply deficiency in Nigeria, rural communities have been negatively affected in their socio-economic activities. A strength, weakness, opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis in combination with an assessment of sustainability indicators of RETs, identified the most appropriate technology for providing sustainable electricity in Nigeria's rural areas. Biomass energy technologies (BETs) are the most appropriate RET given significant resource availability. However, cost has been identified as the major barrier in adopting BETs. Both BETs and grid extension (GE) systems have been assessed. Whole Life Costing (WLC) and interview methods have been used to evaluate the economics of various capacities of BETs and GE systems, and assessed suitability of BETs respectively. Typical findings revealed that all the BETs capacities evaluated other than a 50kW direct combustion system are currently cost-competitive with existing fossil fuel (FF) sources used in generating electricity in Nigeria (US$0.13/kWh without incentives). BETs are identified as the preferable option than GE system for electricity provision to communities of demand capacity less than 50kW and distance less than five kilometre from load centres. Similarly, the interview method confirmed that BETs utilisation in the country’s rural areas are suitable and desirable. For implementation, all the identified drivers and enablers of BETs should be considered, along with the identified constraints to the adoption and development of BETs, some of which should be addressed before implementation. Further, a BETs implementation framework for sustainable electricity provision in rural areas has been developed through the selection of appropriate biomass feedstock and conversion technologies, and support through suitable incentive strategies. The framework was then evaluated and validated using six villages as case study. The benefit of the framework is ensuring successful electricity provision in rural areas. Thus, this study recommends that the existing rural areas energy policies be reviewed to include incentive strategies like economic subsidies in order to encourage investors’ participation given lack of energy infrastructures in rural areas.

Företaget TräEnergi Teknik AB säljer pelletskaminer. Försäljningen av produkten går inte så bra, men ägaren Carl-Axel Fagerström tycker att produkten borde vara efterfrågad av kunderna eftersom den är både miljövänlig och prisvärd. I denna rapport undersöks hur företaget kan ändra sina marknadsföringsstrategier för att nå ut till potentiella köpare. En enkätundersökning har gjorts hos återförsäljare för att ta reda på slutkundernas behov och önskemål. Ur undersökningen framgick att även om kunden är miljömedveten går priset alltid före. Det visade sig dessutom att kunderna de senaste åren börjat leta efter nya alternativ på grund av de kalla vintrarna och högre elpriserna. Vad gäller marknadsföring tyckte återförsäljarna att mässor, webbsidor, TV-reklam och annons i facktidningar är de bästa kanalerna. Kundernas kännedom om pelletskaminer varierar, att de väljs bort till fördel för värmepumpar handlar ofta om okunskap om produkten. Samtliga av respondenterna anser att det finns en potential i framtiden inom marknaden. För att Träenergi Teknik ska lyckas nå ut till den tilltänkta målgruppen krävs utvecklad marknadsföringsstrategi, detta kan göras genom att mer ingående arbeta mer med kanalstrategi. / The company TräEnergi Teknik AB sells wood/pellet stoves. Sales is not to good however, the owner Carl-Axel Fagerström thinks that the product ought to be more in demand since it is both environmental friendly and worth its price. This study will show how the company can change its market strategies to better reach the market and the potential customers. A survey was conducted among retailers to find out about the customers’ demands and requirements. The results of the survey showed that even though the customer is environmentally conscious, the price is always the decisive factor. The survey also showed that customers in recent years have started to look for new heating solutions due to the hard winters and higher electricity prices. Regarding how to market the product the retailers suggested fairs, web pages, TV commercials and advertizing as the best channels to do so. The customers’ knowledge of pellet stoves varies and the fact that heat pumps are chosen over pellet stoves most likely has to do with the lack of knowledge regarding pellet stoves. All the respondents think there is potential for a future market and to be able to reach their target group, TräEnergi Teknik needs a defined market strategy. This thesis will show that the best strategy is channel differentiation through retailers.

What is the trend of the global solar PV industry? What is the importance of Solar Energy in Renewable Energy? Why shall we invest solar PV industry? What is the impact of Renewable Energy Bill, etc. (Law) and the purchase plan (policy) on the solar PV industry? For this research, we mainly analyze the importance of the investment in solar photovoltaic industry. We realize that energy issues have been significant via the analysis by the report of the World Organization, so we shall solve the energy crisis by energy conservation and the development and use of renewable energy. Moreover, we shall realize how to solve the obstacles of the raw materials in solar energy research and which way to get technical and capital in solar photovoltaic industry practice of states, from that we will understand solar energy and the investment relationship of photovoltaic industry. The research results can help readers understand the importance of solar energy, the investment consideration of solar photovoltaic industry and the characteristics of the global solar market, hoping that the policy tools in our country can be leading and continuing success in the future.

This research revolves around the concept design and theoretical validation of a new type of wave energy converter (WEC), comprising a pitching floater integrated with a resonant U-tank (RUT) and a Wells turbine as power take-off (PTO). Theoretical formulation of a fully coupled multi-body dynamic system, incorporating the thermodynamic processes of the RUT air chamber, its interaction with the PTO dynamics and their coupling with the floater is presented. Inaccuracies of the dynamic modeling of RUT based on Lloyd's low order model, which assumes constant hydrodynamic parameters irrespective of the frequency, are demonstrated by a series of high fidelity CFD simulations. These simulations are a systematic series of fully viscous turbulent simulations, using unsteady RANSE solvers, of the water sloshing at different frequencies of oscillation. Calibration of Lloyd’s model with CFD results evidenced that the RUT hydrodynamic parameters are not invariant to frequency. A numerical model was developed based on Simulink WEC-Sim libraries to solve the non-linear thermo-hydrodynamic equations of the device in time domain. For power assessment, parametric investigations are conducted by varying the main dimensions of the RUT and power RAOs were computed for each iteration. Performance in irregular sea state are assessed using a statistical approach with the assumption of linear wave theory. By superimposing spectrum energy density from two resource sites with RAO, mean annual energy production (MEAP) are computed. The predicted MEAP favorably compares with other existing devices, confirming the superior efficiency of the new proposed device over a larger range of incident wave frequency. / M.S. / This study present results of an investigation into a new type of wave energy converter which can be deployed in ocean and by its pitch response motion, it can harvest wave energy and convert it to electrical energy. This device consist of a floater, a U-tank (resonant U-tank) with sloshing water free to oscillate in response to the floater motion and a pneumatic turbine which produces power as air is forced to travel across it. The pneumatic turbine is used as the power take-off (PTO) device. A medium fidelity approach was taken to carry out this study by applying Lloyd’s model which describes the motion of the sloshing water in a resonant U-tank. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies were carried out to calibrate the hydrodynamic parameters of the resonant U-tank as described by Lloyd and it was discovered that these parameters are frequency dependent, therefore Lloyd’s model was modelled to be frequency dependent. The mathematical formulation coupling the thermodynamic evolution of air in the resonant U-tank chamber, modified Lloyd’s sloshing water equation, floater dynamics and PTO were presented for the integrated system. These set of thermo-hydrodynamic equations were solved with a numerical model developed using MATLAB/Simulink WEC-Sim Libraries in time domain in other to capture the non-linearity arising from the coupled dynamics. To assess the annual energy productivity of the device, wave statistical data from two resource sites, Western Hawaii and Eel River were selected and used to carrying out computations on different iterations of the device by varying the tank’s main dimensions. This results were promising with the most performing device iteration yielding mean annual energy production of 579 MWh for Western Hawaii.