Solar energy constitutes one of the main alternatives for facing the energy problems of the future, taking into account the foreseeable depletion of the fossil fuels. Transpired solar air collectors are relatively simple alternatives, which do not need a continuous supervision and are mostly maintenance free. Their life cycle is relatively high, around 25 years, and the total investment can be fully recovered in the short-term. The aim of this master’s thesis is to analyze the feasibility of installing transpired solar air collectors as secondary systems in big industrial buildings, for heating purposes. The collectors would be designed for compensating the heat losses of a building which is mainly heated up by a heat pump system. Precisely, this work tries to evaluate the profitability of installing these collectors in Gävle, taking into account the particularities of this location in the considered study. This project work is focused on testing if these systems can provide enough thermal energy for heating up big-sized industrial buildings. For this purpose, firstly, the heat demand of the building for each month was calculated; secondly, the maximum output from the collector was estimated, using WINSUN simulator; and, finally, the energy difference that had to be covered by the main system was calculated. Once this was done, the yearly running cost for the main system and the total investment for the transpired air solar collector were estimated. Due to the lack of experimental data, the obtained results can only be taken as approximations. All the calculations and estimations have been made using WINSUN, a simulator that has been configured according to the particularities of the project. The results show that the solar collector provides a total thermal output of 29.700 kWh/year (system which has a total investment of 77.000 SEK). The total heat demand of the building is estimated to be of 87.100 kWh/year, being 51.800 kWh/year fulfilled by the heat pump system (which has a yearly running cost of 24.000 SEK/year). The collector has an average efficiency of 51,04%.

2015 the Paris agreement was signed to tackle the climate change and reduce emissions from fossil fuel burning. The industrial and manufacturing sector which alone accounts for 32% of global energy use relies heavily on fossil fuels. Solar thermal energy is a renewable energy source that has potential of replacing large portions of this energy. The Swedish research and development company, Absolicon Solar Collectors AB are manufacturers of solar collectors and production lines of dito. Their main product, the Absolicon T160, is a concentrating solar collector which can produce heat up to 160°C.India, and more specifically the state of Gujarat is an interesting market for the solar collectors. This study is aiming to give Absolicon a better understanding of the potential of replacing fossil fuel with solar thermalenergy in Gujarat, so that they can direct their efforts in the right direction. It is a qualitative study mainly focused on the dairy and textile processing industry, two important sectors in the state that has process demands which can be run on solar thermal energy. Since no reliable data regarding the energy consumption in the studied industries where found, a method for estimating the energy consumption is presented in the study.The results from the study shows that large scale manufacturing is possible from a demand point of view, but there are many hindrances for a market penetration. In India large portions of the industry segments studied is non-organized, i.e. small scale with low level of modern technology. Integration of solar thermal energy in the non-organized sector demands a different approach. Based on the results a market analysis with suggestions on how to proceed for the different industrial segments studied is presented.Despite good solar insolation in the state the solar resource was studied in greater detail as aerosols and dust can affect the energy yield from the solar collectors. The results indicates that the annual solar irradiation can be both over- and underestimated when using satellite derived models. India has monsoon seasons and seasonal winds which affects the levels of aerosols in the atmosphere. The level of aerosols and dust has ahigh impact on the solar resource.Ground measurements are therefore a complement that could be used to get a better understandingon site.

Nowadays, increasing energy costs create challenges for societies. In industries such as manufacturing, energy is one of the basic needs for development, automation, and modernization. The increase in energy costs affects economic growth, especially, in the manufacturing industry which depends on the energy consumption to run their facilities. One of the components that contribute considerably to energy consumption in industry is industrial heating technology. A new technology called microwave heating technology has been developed to tackle the issue of energy costs. The new technology is considered niche because, in contrast to widely used induction heating technologies, it is more environmentally friendly and the embedded AI control algorithm minimizes the loss of energy and time. Microwave heating is becoming prominent amongst other heating technologies because of its ability to transfer heat better and faster inside the material and thus, it generates low energy costs. However, for a niche technological innovation, it is considered difficult to commercialize as consumers have less experience and knowledge about the technology. The study is analyzed using a framework of commercialization of technological innovation that has been developed with a review of existing literature. The data has been sourced from an investigation of the case company and seven semi-structured interviews with niche technological innovation companies to get insights on the practical application of the stages of commercialization of new technological innovation. Based on the empirical data and analysis, the study concludes that a firm should go through different stages, namely market recognition, development, and deployment with a focus on building relationships with customers, establishing partnerships to manage through uncertainties, testing, and being flexible in the decision-making of essential aspects such as pricing model to successfully commercialize their technology innovation. This study also contributes to the literature on the commercialization of niche technological innovations and provides recommendations for the improvement of commercialization processes.