Umeå Energi are working towards a goal, that in the year of 2018, they will be completely climate neutral. As a part of this, one target is to reduce their grid losses by 4 % of the 2012 level, which corresponds to an overall reduction of the grid losses of just over 1.7 GWh. In many residential areas, the distribution grid is designed and rated for electric heating as the heating in the houses. As many of the houses later has been converted to other types of heating, their electricity use has decreased and the total power output from many of the secondary substations has decreased significantly. Because of this, many of these stations today are well oversized, which in turn means that the energy losses in these stations are unnecessarily high.In this degree project, 25 secondary substations have been studied, all located in residential areas in and around central Umeå.

Identification and analysis of key success factors for an entrepreneurial firm to achieve leverage when establishing on a foreign market with a premium consumer product..

Sex equality law within the European Union is well developed and has since the Rome Treaty, given rise to several directives and other judicial acts on this matter of community law. The concepts of direct and indirect discrimination emerge from the general principles of Equal pay and Equal treatment and have been codified and amended several times until present.The lasts years, authors within the field of Equality Law has been pointing out that there is a common desire for simplification of discrimination law in Europe. The question has arisen whether this simplification could be implemented trough the introduction of a general justification defence for direct sex discrimination.The concept of direct sex discrimination - when a person of one gender is treated less favourably, on the grounds of gender, than a person of the other gender would be treated in similar circumstances - leaves no possibilities for such justification today. Indirect sex discrimination ? which arises from the equal application of neutral rules that shows an adverse impact on one group ? can be justified if the rule answers to true requirements of the job.Does the proposition that direct discrimination should be justified find support in the inconsistency of the present legislation? This paper will examine this and other questions concerning the wish for a general justification defence through studies of case law from the European Court of Justice as well as differing opinions from authors within the field of equality law..

This master of economics paper discuss that the globalization has lead to increasing internationalization among small Swedish IT- companies in the service sector. Sweden has a long history of foreign trade but in the beginning of the industrialization only large companies that produced goods answered for the foreign trade. Before, the Swedish companies begun their operations abroad in fairly nearby markets and only gradually penetrated far-flung countries. Now this is no longer possible. When small companies nowadays seek growth in other countries there is no time internationalize with the same approaches as before, especially when the company offers a service.

Girls with foreign background is the group that is most left outside the sports movement in Sweden and the ones with the least sports habit. Sports assumed to provide an arena for integration that these girls are being left outside from. The Swedish sports movement has adapted the conditions for them as a way to encourage them to participate in sports, but there are still lots of girls with foreign background that stands outside the sports movement. One input that the Swedish National Association has done for children and young adults is to adopt the Drive-in-sport, which can work as an entrance to the sports movement. The aim of the study is therefore to investigate which barriers, motivators and requests girls in Sweden with foreign background have to participate in Drive-in-sports.

This essay tries to explain how Swedish donor organisations are working with democracy in foreign aid. Three case studies of Sida, LO-TCO Biståndsnämnd and Rädda Barnen aims to give an overview of Swedish donor organisations, their work with democracy aid, evaluation and the problems with foreign aid. With Carothers theory of democracy aiding I analyse the success of Swedish democracy promotion, how civil society contributes to democratizaion and how democracy is measured.I find that Swedish democracy aid overall is successful due to a wider perspective of the term democracy. When democracy involves human rights it gives the donor a possibility to work with democracy promotion in a more extensive area and especially in the civil society. The essay stresses the importance of being subjective when evaluating and that one have to focus on the definition of democracy in each specific case.

This thesis calculates and compares the values of improved environmental quality due to future possible investment alternatives in biogas production facilities at Käppalaförbundets Reningsverk (Käppala Sewage Treatment Works) in an attempt to determine which alternative yields the highest such value. Käppala faces three investment alternatives for the usage of biogas. The alternatives are production of vehicle fuel, district heating and thirdly, heat and power production. Estimates of the value of environmental change are calculated for each of the three investment alternatives, and these estimates are then compared. The environmental change in question is the change in discharge levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and particle matter.

AbstractTurkey has emerged as a major actor in the Middle East over the last decade, since the ruling party AKP came to power in 2002. Turkey is now playing a mediation role in regional conflicts and has been speaking out loudly on sensitive issues such as the Iranian nuclear program and the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. Furthermore, Turkey has established close ties with the Arab world which has suffered the relationship with its long-time ally Israel. This new presence in Middle East has been criticized by Turkey's allies in west. Critics argue that the country is about to abandon its former western relationship and strengthen their ties with the Arab world instead.This thesis has two main purposes.

For a long time economic tax equalization system in Sweden has been creating dispute between Swedish communities. Despite the main purpose of the system - to reduce disparities and create equal economic opportunities for all communities ? some regions were not satisfied.The main purpose of this study is to determine what extant has equalization tax on investment spending of Danderyd municipality during 2000-2010 year period. The study is based on annual reports and personal interviews. The theoretical frame of the investigation is founded on Fjertorp's classification of investments and public choice theory.The investigation shows that there were no significant changes neither in investment spending or equalization tax during 2000-2010 period, even after the last changes of economic tax equalizations system in 2005.

In recent years, awareness of the climate change has increased around the world. Environmental issues have been taking into consideration, both by individuals and companies. Therefore the demands for new environmental friendly technology have increased, also known as cleantech. To further establish and develop cleantech it requires capital. Venture capitalists have as well seen the potential.To increase the number of Venture capital investments in cleantech, it is important the investments generate good returns.

Background: Increasingly, companies choose to finance their business with corporate bonds which has resulted in an increased demand on credit ratings. As such the rating agencies have a very important role in the financial markets. Examining the value of a credit-rating can be very interesting for both issuer and investor. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to identify and define the value of rating. Execution: The study is built upon nine interviews with rated and non-rated firms and investors.

Introduction and background: The 1990s crisis and the global financial crisis year 2008 shows the same indications that the property market was affected negative. The Swedish Property companies had a difficult time on the market when the crisis led to decreased property trade and financing problems for the Property companies. The Swedish property companies became less attractive on the market and contributed to a drop in prices on investment property.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to examine if there is any relation between the Swedish Property companies impairments on their investment property and the global financial crisis year 2008.Method: The essay is based on a quantitative study where we examined Swedish Property companies? annual reports. We answered our questions and our purpose from the empirical data that we collected from the annual reports.Conclusions: The study resulted in that we found a correlation between the Swedish Property companies? impairments on their investment properties and the global financial crisis year 2008.

This study deals with the technical and economic feasibility of replacing the nuclear power plant reactor Ringhals 3 with a biofuel power plant. A technical investigation has been executed to determine which of the systems and components that could be reused and which ones would need to be replaced. The investment costs of the reconstruction have also been estimated. The cost of the electricity production has been calculated as well as the emissions of the new biofuel power plant. Based on the established rate of return, the lowest average spot price of electricity that makes the investment profitable has been calculated.

This essay focuses on the theory of classical realism from two points of views. Realism is often told to be quite immoral and cynical and only interested in the power relations among nations. In the first part I am arguing that this picture is wrong and should be revised. By using the ethical theories of deontology and utilitarianism I am arguing that both these perspectives can be used to analyse classical realism. By defining a value that should be guiding one can assert that realism is a good moral theory.

Background: There has been an increase in savings and investment in recent years along with an increased interest in responsible investments. Ethical mutual funds has developed and gained increasingly popularity.Aim: The aim of the study is to examine if ethical mutual funds are an equivalent alternative to traditional mutual funds in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted return on the Swedish stock market.Theory: Beta, Jensen's Alpha, Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, and Modern Portfolio Theory.Method: Quantitative survey method, a statistical study.Conclusion:The study concludes that there is no significant difference between ethical and conventional mutual funds in terms of return, risk and risk-adjusted return. The small differences that exist between the two fund groups are in favor of the ethical fund group, indicating that funds is a comparable investment option compared to traditional mutual funds..