To achieve a sustainable development, three aspects have to take equal place in the society; environmental, economical and social. To reduce the impact on the environment and the amount of greenhouse gases supplied to the atmosphere, industrialized countries and less developed countries must start cooperating. Also the use of renewable energy sources, like solar, hydro and wind power, have to increase.Wind power has great potential as a future energy supply. It is cost efficient, quickly developed and the resource is abundant and available worldwide.Examinations made in Sweden, indicates that there are difficulties establishing wind power at the same pace as the environmental goals, set by the Swedish government, requires. Mainly because people living nearby potential areas for wind power farms, appeal against the decision.This study aims to investigate differences between how people in Sweden and Brazil look at wind power as a future energy source and at the establishing process.

Peat  lands  are  a  great  potential  resource  for  increased  forest  growth  in  Sweden, there  are  approximately  6.5  million  hectares  of  peat  lands,  whereof  around  70% produce less wood than one m3sk/ha and year and are therefore classed as forest waste  land.  There  are  over  200  000  hectares  of  peat  land  that  is  already  drained and  wooded,  and  that may  be  suitable  for  fertilization.  Forest  production  on  peat soils  usually  requires  drainage  and  fertilization.  Dewatering  requires  ditching  the area, so that the roots can have access to oxygen. Nitrogen is often abundant in the peat but other nutrients; especially potassium is in short supply. The  purpose  of  this  work  was  to examine  the effects  of  potassium  fertilization  on the  growth  of  spruces  that  were  planted  on  drained  peat  land  and  how  different amount of fertilizers affects the growth. Potassium deficiency is strongly growth inhibiting, since potassium is important for substance  transport  in  the  tree.  Potassium  is  also  important  for  the  carbohydrate formation, and because increasing the sugar content of the cells constitutes a lower freezing temperature does potassium availability in the soil play a major role in the winter  resistance  of  many  species.  Potassium  is  not  found  in  any  organic compounds in the tree, but is present in cell and tissue fluids. A fertilization trial was started in 1978 in Siljansfors Experimental Forest. The plots in the experiment were fertilized with different amounts of potassium and one plot was  left  without  fertilization.  All  plots  that  were  fertilized  with  potassium  grew considerably better than the unfertilized plot. The difference in production between the unfertilized plot and the plot that received the most potassium was 7.2 m3sk/ha and year. The unfertilized plot can still be classified as waste land. The theoretical production capacity was estimated using a Swedish system for site quality  estimation  of  wetlands  after  ditching  (dikningsbonitering).  The  plot  with most  potassium  produced  after  fertilizationaproximately  in  level  with  theoretical estimations.  Key  words:  Peat  land,  Fertilization,  Ditching,  Growth,  site  quality..

This report will show the energy usage of Hotel Princess in Sandviken, Sweden. When the hotel changed owner an examination of the hotels heating, ventilation and sanitary systems were done. The report showed flaws in the ventilation system, and is why the new owner wanted a closer look at the energy use of the hotel. The original building was built in the 1930s and two major extensions have been built, one in the 1950s and the most recent in the 1980s. An assumption made is that the building parts were built to the restrictions during the time. Activities on the hotel include sleep over, conference, night club, massage and swimming in the hotels pool section.

ÅF Test Center in Borlänge had a need to expand their capacity for compressive and tensile strength tests. They wanted to do this by using a hydraulic cylinder, which they already possessed, to apply the force with. This required a load receiving structure. The aim of this work was to design and dimensioning a test bench for a cylinder marked NIKE 300 tons. The work would result in a completed design proposal on a test bench which could manage to run the compressive and tensile strength tests of up to 3000 kN.

Bioethanol is one alternative energy fuel that can be produced from different types of biomass. Second generation bioethanol comes from fermentation of lignocellulosic material and can be seen as a more environmental friendly alternative as e.g. forest residues and agricultural by-products are used. To be able to use lignocellulosic biomass in ethanol production, it has to be subjected to different treatments first. In this study, aspen sawdust was used as lignocellulosic material.

The current debate about environment and climate change has contributed to more andmore investment in alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and biogas. The Swedish Parliament has set the target that wind power should supply 10 TWh in 2015.In Sweden, wind power establishment began in the early 1980s. Since then the development has gained a tremendous momentum. The purpose of this study was to find out what problems wind power brings and what power relations that exists in connection with wind power establishment and how the landscape is affected by windpower construction, focusing on some cases in Falkenberg and Varberg. This study shows that wind power establishment is a very complicated process.

I en tid med allt mer påtagliga miljöhot, ökande CO2-utsläpp och stigande efterfrågan på el är det viktigt att utvecklingen av billig och effektiv förnyelsebar energi fortsätter runt om i världen för att kunna konkurrera mot billigare, icke förnyelsebara, energikällor. Ett steg i detta är att utveckla och effektivisera solkraft till den nivån att länder och företag väljer att investera i solkraft. Mer konkret kan det ske igenom utveckling av nya, mer effektiva, solcellsmoduler.I denna studie ska en ny typ av solcellsmodul, SmartPlus ? utvecklat av Innotech Solar, jämföras mot deras standardmodul EcoPlus för att undersöka om den nya modulen kan bidra till högre andel solkraftsgenererad el i Sverige och där med minska CO2-utsläppen. Den nya solcellsmodulen är framtagen för att bättre kunna hantera och ta tillvara på solinstrålningen om en del av modulen utsätts för skugga, därför kommer studien simulera de båda moduler i en solpark där det sker intern skuggning mellan modulraderna.

ur society is today in a phase of development in environmental and sustainable thinking. Alarming reports show changes in climate caused by our load and exhaust of resources. The energy usage contributes to a big part of it, by its emission of carbon dioxide. The built environment uses around 40 % of the total energy consumption in Sweden and requests to strongly reduce it are presented from both EU and national level.This thesis brings up the subject of green building with a focus on how we can create more energy efficient buildings in projects of new construction. Since the construction industry today often fails to pass on the knowledge between different projects, as a return of experiences, the construction company Skanska suggested the topic for this thesis.

The housing sector uses 40 % of the energy in Sweden and half of the electricity usage. Theuse of energy is the main reason to the increasing rate of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.This is the main motive but also a wish of higher safety, that is a higher rate of selfsufficientenergy production in Sweden, we want to decrease the need of using fossil fuel. Now whenthe energy price rise, the interest in energy issues increase and more people discuss thepossibility of reducing the usage of fossil fuel. A change to renewable energy such as sun,wind and water is the only solution where we can get a sustainable development.One way to contribute to a better use of energy is to build in the principle of passive house.The house is being built with a thick and tight insulation. If you use a heat-exchanger withhigh degree of efficiency and a final heating battery on the ventilation system, the heat fromlamps, devices and the ones living in the house should be enough to fulfil the criteria ofliving.

Species that have a high degree of specialization and poor dispersal ability can be more prone to extinction than more generalist species and good dispersers. How these species traits affect the viability of populations is dependent on landscape factors,such as isolation and connectivity. Additionally, interactions between species (e.g. symbiosis), and how these interactions vary spatially and temporally can have a large impact on populations. When the range and habitat areas of a species continuously decrease, management strategies are often needed if the species shall be able to survive.

Samhället är idag mycket beroende av energi. En stor del av energiproduktionen sker idag med hjälp av fossila bränslen, som har en stor påverkan på växthuseffekten. Enligt Sveriges riksdags miljömål ska klimatutsläppen minskas med 40 % till år 2020. Ett led i att lyckas med den minskningen är att öka produktionen av förnyelsebar energi. Solenergi är en förnyelsebar energiproduktion som kan bidra till minskad miljöpåverkan. Syftet med studien är att på en grundläggande nivå ta fram en kalkylmall som kan underlätta beslutsprocessen för lantbruksföretag i olika delar av landet vid investering i solenergi.

This paper is a literature study aiming to describe scientists newest theories andknowledge concerning the El Niño and Southern Oscillation. Firstly I have described the?normal? conditions with rising and sinking air in Hadley- and Walker-cells in theequatorial Pacific and from there moved on to explaining the reversed circulation patternsand higher sea surface temperatures (SST) leading to rising air and anomalousprecipitation in eastern Pacific constituting the El Niño phenomenon. My outermostinterest regarding El Niño has been the associated teleconnections, especially in nontropicalareas. I have described the El Niño effect on the Indian summer monsoon, ontropical cyclones and on storms and precipitation on higher latitudes.

The artic fox is under threat of extermination in Europe. The population decreased strongly at the beginning of the twentieth century because of intensive hunting. The artic fox was placed under protection by law 1928 in Sweden but despite this the population has had difficultly to recover. This can depend on several reasons, but the main threats are shortage of food and competition from the red fox. Along with Norway and Finland, Sweden has carried out a project called SEFALO (Saving the Endangered Fennoscandian Alopex lagopus), whose objectives were to prevent continued decreased populationnumbers and through, for example supplementary feeding, help the population to recover.

We have the tradition in Sweden to build villas and houses with a wooden framework. It has become natural for us because we have so much forest in our country. Building with wood has advantages, it is easy to process, but also disadvantages, as it is sensitive to moisture.Finland has long made use of the thermal blocks to build villas. It is a type of bricks that are a bit like a sandwich element, with a core of EPS and concrete on both sides of the core material. The concrete is hollow, so that after the walls has been bricked up you pour concrete into the hollow bricks.The issue of this report is to find out if concrete can be an alternative to wood as framework material in villas.

Iron deficiency is one of the most frequent micronutrient deficiencies around the world. Low iron bioavailability simultaneously with a high iron requirement is a high risk factor for developing iron deficiency. Probiotics are microorganisms that confer a health benefit on the host. Prebiotics are oligosaccharides which provide a health benefit on the host due to a positive modulation of the microflora in the gut. The aim of this paper is to evaluate if there is a connection between pro-and/or prebiotics and iron bioavailability.