• Energy Research
• 9. Industry and infrastructure close
• 1. No poverty close
• SE close
• NO close
• Publikationer från KTH close

AbstractWe analyze whether lower rents for energy-inefficient apartments reflect tenants’ willingness to pay due to a higher green awareness, purchasing power, or energy consumption costs. Based on a German rental apartment dataset from Q1 2007 to Q1 2019, we use interaction terms for socioeconomic characteristics in a hedonic regression model. We find that rents are lower for apartments with higher energy consumption, even in neighborhoods with lower levels of green awareness. This relationship is stronger in neighborhoods with higher purchasing power, such that communities with low levels of green awareness and high purchasing power show the steepest negative slope for increasing energy consumption (−8.6% from the highest to lowest rating). Thus, the rent-decreasing effect of purchasing power is higher than that of green awareness. Splitting the entire period into smaller windows, we find that the interaction effect of green awareness has emerged in the most recent years (2017–2019). This may be driven by changes in regulation, which have made it easier for tenants to assess the energy consumption before they rent, or by a general increase in green awareness over this period.

Land, energy and water are the foundational resources of a country, and have a number of complex interactions with a changing climate. Their exploitation can have significant impacts on climate change, which in turn can affect the future availability of these resources. Thus it is important to properly manage these resources, to ensure that they can continue to provide long into the future. This thesis aims to assess the climate, land-use, energy and water systems (CLEWs) nexus in Bolivia, to determine critical points of interactions, and to produce recommendations for policy actions. This includes both mitigation and adaptation actions. The results show that Bolivia’s projected demand increases are certainly manageable, and with the investments as outlined, they can easily be satisfied, while reducing emissions and increasing climate resilience. An important result is that municipal and thermal water demand don’t appear to be limiting constraints, and so water management efforts should focus on agricultural and hydropower use. Recommended future work is to increase the scope and detail of the water and land model, so that all of the planned hydropower projects are included, and so that agriculture and irrigation demands and impacts can be more accurately predicted.

As the building and construction industry contributes considerably to global warming there isa need to increase sustainable building, especially in developing countries where the conceptis often overlooked. Even though there is a need to implement more sustainable alternatives,research shows that it comes with many challenges. The aim for this study is therefore toanalyze the barriers and motivational drivers when implementing sustainable building inGhana. Chan et al. (2018) have previously conducted a categorization of the barriers forsustainable building through a quantitative study. This categorization was used as a guidingtool in this qualitative study, which was done through a Minor Field Study (MFS). Hence,eleven interviews with green champions were held on-site in Ghana. Further, to understand themotivation of the interviewees better, self-determination theory (SDT) was used to analyze thedata. The theory divides motivation into two different levels, extrinsic and intrinsic. The formeris a more controlled form of motivation, while the latter is more autonomous. The findingsshow that the most critical barriers were lack of professional knowledge and expertise, lack ofawareness of sustainable building and its benefits, together with higher costs. Despite thesebarriers, the green champions are still highly motivated. While intrinsic motivation is dominantamongst the green champions interviewed for this study, there is still a level of extrinsicmotivation at play. When comparing the barriers to the motivational factors one suggestion isfor the private and public sector to invest in demonstration projects. This would fulfill the greenchampions’ motivation to create their own identity for African architecture combined with anincreased awareness for sustainable building. This paper contributes with a unique andcomprehensive look at sustainable building in Ghana. Additionally, the study's theoreticalframework is not often used in the field of construction management, making this a valuablecontribution as the paper can be beneficial to leaders or managers in the construction industry. Bygg- och anläggningsindustrin bidrar avsevärt till den globala uppvärmningen vilket harskapat ett behov av att öka hållbart byggande, särskilt i låg- eller medelinkomstländer därkonceptet ofta förbises. Även om det finns ett behov av att implementera mer hållbara alternativvisar forskning att det kommer med många utmaningar. Syftet med denna studie är därför attanalysera barriärerna och drivkrafterna vid implementering av hållbart byggande i Ghana.Chan et al. (2018) har tidigare kategoriserat barriärerna för hållbart byggande genom enkvantitativ studie. Kategorisering har använts som ett vägledande ramverk i denna kvalitativastudie, som gjordes genom en fältstudie. Elva intervjuer genomfördes med aktörer definieradesom “green champions” på plats i Ghana. För att bättre förstå motivationen hos de intervjuade,applicerades självbestämmandeteorin (SBT) vid analysering av data. Teorin delar in motivationi två olika nivåer, extern och intern. Extern motivation är en mer kontrollerad form avmotivation, medan intern är mer autonom. Resultatet visar att de mest kritiska barriärerna ärbrist på professionell kunskap och expertis, bristande medvetenhet om hållbart byggande ochdess fördelar, samt högre kostnader. Trots dessa hinder är de intervjuade aktörerna motiverade.Även om intern motivation är dominerande bland de intervjuade, finns en nivå av externmotivation. Efter jämförelse mellan barriärerna och motivationsfaktorerna är ett förslag att denprivata och offentliga sektorn investerar i demonstrationsprojekt. Detta skulle uppfyllaaktörernas motivation att skapa sin egen identitet för afrikansk arkitektur kombinerat med enökad medvetenhet om hållbart byggande. Den här studien bidrar med ett unikt och heltäckandeperspektiv på hållbart byggande i Ghana. Dessutom är det unikt att använda studiens teoretiskaramverk inom området byggprojektledning, vilket gör detta till ett värdefullt bidrag eftersomuppsatsen kan vara till nytta för ledare eller chefer inom byggbranschen. 

This paper presents results from a study on the impact of smart grid solutions, which includes development of a generic framework for power system analyses. The study has been performed as one of several independent studies, part of a national governmental task on smart grid in Sweden. A large amount of weather data, along with electricity consumption and wind power generation data, have been analyzed. Achieved results from these initial analyses can be used as reference material and have also been used within case studies presented. The proposed framework is flexible and numerous combinations of scenarios are possible to define. Integration of wind and solar power, analyses of transfer limits using static or dynamic rating and energy storage can be considered as well as weather effects. Results show how power systems can handle more electricity consumption and generation. The study shows that Smart Grid solutions are beneficial for resource efficient electricity grids. Moreover, different risk levels with respect to increased load can be included. Case study results show that energy storages most of the time will be unused, but that they can be used to increase the system reliability.

The electric power system is under an extensive development phase. This change is today normally expressed in the concept of Smart Grid. It captures different developments for a sustainable electric power system, e.g. including large changes at the electrical distribution level with new features for electricity customers. One move in these changes is the larger role of the regulator. In Sweden, a performance based regulatory model was introduced in 2003 as a tool to support in judging if the distribution system operators (DSOs) was charging the customers the right level of tariffs. The model was referred to as the Network Performance Assessment Model (NPAM). The NPAM was an international unique and innovative regulatory tool. The model evaluated tariffs by enter several system data to a computer program which produce a fictive network with the aim of having the same objective conditions as the real system. However, the NPAM was strongly criticized and since 2009 formally abandoned and a new regulation will be introduced 2012. Moreover, the NPAM not support climate incentives such as low losses, which will be a challenge when adopting a smart grid perspective into the regulation of distribution system tariffs in the future. The authors of this paper have followed the development of this model, and have a unique insight in the complexity behind the model. No stringent description of the NPAM is available. This paper aims to fill this gap by providing an overall picture of the NPAM including hitherto unpublished details on underlying theory. This could hopefully inspire and give a reference when developing regulations in different countries in the future by learning from its novelties as well as from its drawbacks.

Continual environmental degradation and an unfair distribution of environmental burdens and benefits are two great challenges for humanity. Economic growth is often taken for granted when planning for the future. However, it is often argued that maintaining economic growth conflicts with keeping human activities adjusted to ecological boundaries and finite resources, at least for the more-developed countries. With this paper, we present sustainability goals for building and planning in Sweden to be achieved by 2050 in a context of limited or even negative economic growth. These goals should ensure that all groups in society have sufficient resources and a good life within planetary boundaries. We select four goals in a participatory process: two environmental goals related to climate change and land use and two social goals related to welfare and participation. Our results show that achieving the environmental goals will require significant reductions of Sweden’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and land use compared to today’s levels. Regarding the social goals, these are, in many aspects, reasonably well fulfilled in Sweden today, although disparities remain between groups of citizens. The main challenge, however, is to ensure that these goals are fulfilled even within environmental limits and if economic growth should halt.

Abstract Smart meters and in-house displays hold a promise of energy conservation for those who invest in such technology. Research has shown that households only have a limited interest in such technology and information is thus often neglected, with rather limited energy savings. Surprisingly few empirical investigations have a theoretical foundation that may explain what is going on from a behavioral perspective. In this study the economic theory of self-control is used to model energy-efficient behavior in middle-income households in Sweden. Our results show that different levels of energy-efficient behavior do not really have any impact on the actual consumption levels of electricity. Instead, different beliefs exist of being energy-efficient, but the households do not act accordingly. We recommend to policy makers that the payment time period should be changed to pre-paid electricity to stimulate the monitoring of bills and to introduce a gaming strategy to change incentives for energy conservation.

Rising demand, climate change, growing fuel costs, outdated power system infrastructures, and new power generation technologies have made renewable distribution generators very attractive in recent years. Because of the increasing penetration level of renewable energy sources in addition to the growth of new electrical demand sectors, such as electrical vehicles, the power system may face serious problems and challenges in the near future. A revolutionary new power grid system, called smart grid, has been developed as a solution to these problems. The smart grid, equipped with modern communication and computation infrastructures, can coordinate different parts of the power system to enhance energy efficiency, reliability, and quality, while decreasing the energy cost. Since conventional distribution networks lack smart infrastructures, much research has been recently done in the distribution part of the smart grid, called smart distribution grid (SDG). This paper surveys contemporary literature in SDG from the perspective of the electricity market in addition to power system considerations. For this purpose, this paper reviews current demand side management methods, supply side management methods, and electrical vehicle charging and discharging techniques in SDG and also discusses their drawbacks. We also present future research directions to tackle new and existing challenges in the SDG.