Abstract

This thesis researches for suitable Small Wind Turbines for the Swedish market by studying the Chinese, Mexican and Swedish manufacturers. The purpose of this study is to find the most important factors that influence buyers decision making. Therefore, a benchmarking model is developed based on these factors in order to compare each products performance.

The theoretical approaches used as basis for this investigation are: benchmarking, buying behavior and physics theories. Thereafter, the model developed by the authors is used as a main tool to conduct the products performance evaluation, which is based on specific features and parameters. This procedure has been followed in order to answer the main research question: How can Chinese and Mexican SWT manufacturers meet the demands from Swedish market?

The analysis shows that many Chinese and Mexican Small Wind Turbines present a high and acceptable performance for the Swedish market. However, there have been identified some reasons to explain why these manufacturers have not entered the market.

Keywords: Benchmarking, small wind turbine, wind mill, performance, parameters, customers needs, market requirements, products features, benchmarking model, wind energy, green energy, environment.

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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank everybody who contributed to make this learning experience possible by supporting us through advices, time and financial resources. First of all, we would like to express our gratefulness to the manufacturing companies and organizations from Sweden, China and Mexico for sharing their time with us. We are thankful for their trustfulness by providing us with the requested information, which was essential to accomplish this investigation. Also, we appreciate the contribution of Jhonny Lilja and Wang Zhi. Moreover, we want to express our gratitude to our thesis advisor Dr. Sigvald Harryson, who gave us the advice, guidance and motivation required to accomplish this investigation. Likewise, we would like to show our appreciation to Prof. Hans Jansson for his guidance in the early steps of this investigation. Last but not least, we would like to thank our colleagues, friends and family for the constant support and courage provided.

_____________________ Alejandro Jamaica

_____________________ Koon Ki Mak

_________________ Yi Zheng
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TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF FIGURES ............................................................................................ 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................. 8 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 9
1.1.
1.1.1. 1.1.2. 1.1.3.

BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................ 9
WIND TURBINE HISTORY ........................................................................................................... 9 WIND ENERGY MARKET .......................................................................................................... 10 SMALL WIND TURBINE INDUSTRY ............................................................................................. 12

1.2.
1.2.1. 1.2.2.

RESEARCH PROBLEM............................................................................................... 12
RESEARCH BACKGROUND ...................................................................................................... 12 PROBLEM DEFINITION ........................................................................................................... 16

1.3.

PURPOSE .................................................................................................................. 17

2.
2.1. 2.2. 2.3. 2.4.

METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................................18
RESEARCH STRATEGY ............................................................................................. 18 SCIENTIFIC APPROACH ............................................................................................ 19 RESEARCH METHOD ................................................................................................ 20 DATA COLLECTION.................................................................................................. 20
PRIMARY DATA ..................................................................................................................... 21 SECONDARY DATA ................................................................................................................. 23

2.4.1. 2.4.2.

2.5. 2.6.
2.6.1. 2.6.2. 2.6.3.

SELECTION OF DATA SOURCES................................................................................ 23 QUALITY OF RESEARCH........................................................................................... 24

INTERNAL VALIDITY ............................................................................................................... 24 EXTERNAL VALIDITY .............................................................................................................. 24 RELIABILITY .......................................................................................................................... 25

3.
3.1.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................26

BENCHMARKING ...................................................................................................... 26
TYPES OF BENCHMARKING ..................................................................................................... 26 THE FIVE-STAGE BENCHMARKING PROCESS MODEL ................................................................... 27

3.1.1. 3.1.2.

3.2.
3.2.1.

BUYING BEHAVIOR .................................................................................................. 34

PURCHASING PROCESS ........................................................................................................... 35

3.3.

WIND SPEED PHYSICS & BETZ LAW ...................................................................... 37

4.
4.1.

EMPIRICAL STUDY......................................................................................38
BENCHMARKING STEPS ........................................................................................... 38
DETERMINE WHAT TO BENCHMARK.......................................................................................... 38 FORMING A BENCHMARKING TEAM .......................................................................................... 39 IDENTIFYING BENCHMARKING PARTNERS ................................................................................. 39 COLLECT AND ANALYZE BENCHMARKING INFORMATION ............................................................. 41 CUSTOMERS CONCERNS ........................................................................................................ 42

4.1.1. 4.1.2. 4.1.3. 4.1.4. 4.1.5.

5.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE YAK MODEL ...................................................52

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5.1. 5.2. 5.3. 5.4.

5.4.1.

PARAMETERS ........................................................................................................... 52 CALCULATION OF AEP ............................................................................................ 54 ADAPTION TO CALCULATION OF AEP IN YAK MODEL ........................................... 56 SCORING SYSTEM .................................................................................................... 57
CALCULATION OF THE FOUR FACTORS ..................................................................................... 58

6.
6.1.

ANALYSIS.......................................................................................................63
ANALYSIS OF THE BEST PRACTICE: JBA VIND AB ,22 KW SWT ............................. 63
WIND TURBINE SUITABILITY EXAMINATION AND ANALYSIS BY YAK MODEL ................................... 64

6.1.1.

6.2.
6.2.1. 6.2.2.

BENCHMARK OF CHINESE AND MEXICAN WIND TURBINES ..................................... 65

INDIVIDUAL WIND TURBINE ANALYSIS ....................................................................................... 66 PRODUCT COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS ..................................................................................... 71

7.

CONCLUSION ................................................................................................74

SWEDISH SWT ................................................................................................................................... 75 CHINESE SWT .................................................................................................................................... 75 MEXICAN SWT ................................................................................................................................... 75

8.
8.1. 8.2. 8.3. 8.4. 8.5. 8.6.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................77
BOOKS ...................................................................................................................... 77 ASSOCIATION MATERIAL ........................................................................................ 78 INTERVIEWS ............................................................................................................. 78 INTERNET SOURCES ................................................................................................. 79 ARTICLES ................................................................................................................. 79 OTHER SOURCES ...................................................................................................... 79

9.

APPENDIX ......................................................................................................80

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TABLE OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1. WORLD TOTAL INSTALLED CAPACITY (WWEA, 2009) .........11 FIGURE 2. ANNUAL AVERAGE WIND SPEED AT 49 M HEIGHT ABOVE ZERO-PLANE DISPLACEMENTAS ESTIMATED FROM MIUU-MODEL RESULTS (BERGSTRM, 2007) .........................................................................14 FIGURE 3. RESEARCH PROBLEM ...................................................................17 FIGURE 4. BASIC TYPES OF DESIGN FOR CASE STUDIES (YIN, 2003) ....19 FIGURE 5. THE FIVE-STAGE BENCHMARKING PROCESS (SPENDOLINI, 1992) ........................................................................................................................28 FIGURE 6, OBSTRUCTION OF THE WIND BY A BUILDING OR TREE OF HEIGHT(H) ............................................................................................................45 FIGURE 7. PARAMETERS CONSIDERED INTO YAK MODEL ....................54 FIGURE 8. CALCULATION OF THE FOUR FACTORS..................................58 FIGURE 9. PAY BACK RATIO GRAPH.............................................................59 FIGURE 10. PRODUCTION MATCH GRAPH ..................................................60 FIGURE 11. AFTER SALES CALCULATION PROCEDURE ..........................61 FIGURE 12. LIFE TIME / WARRANTY YEARS GRAPH ................................61 FIGURE 13. PRODUCT APPRAISAL MATRIX ................................................72 FIGURE 14. PRODUCT COMPARISON MATRIX ...........................................73

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1. ADAPTION TO CALCULATION OF AEP IN YAK MODEL .........57 TABLE 2.SCENARIO SITUATION SETTINGS BEST PRACTICE .................63 TABLE 3. INPUT INFORMATION FOR JBA VIND, 22 KW SWT ..................64 TABLE 4. SCORE OF JBA VIND AB, 22 KW SWT ...........................................64 TABLE 5. ESTIMATION RESULTS OF JBA VIND AB, 22 KW SWT .............65 TABLE 6. SCORE OF SKYWING-20KW SWT ..................................................66 TABLE 7. ESTIMATION RESULTS OF SKYWING-20KW SWT....................67 TABLE 8. SCORE OF HUAYING SWT ..............................................................68 TABLE 9. ESTIMATION RESULTS OF HUAYING 25KW SWT ....................69 TABLE 10. SCORE OF POTENCIA 10KW SWT ...............................................70 TABLE 11. ESTIMATION RESULTS OF POTENCIA 10KW SWT .................71 TABLE 12, WIND TURBINE RESULTS COMPARISON .................................74

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AEC AEP AMWS AWEA EWEA HAWT LAWEA kW MW SWT tWh VAWT WWEA Annual Energy Consumption Annual Energy Production Annual Mean Wind Speed American Wind Energy Association European Wind Energy Association Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Latin American Wind Energy Association KiloWatt MegaWatt Small Wind Turbine Tera Watt Hour Vertical Axis Wind Turbine World Wind Energy Association

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background
1.1.1. Wind turbine history

The first windmills were developed in Persia between 500 and 900 A.D with the main purpose of automate the tasks of grain-grinding and water-pumping. Even though the first use was apparently water pumping, the exact method of water transport is unknown because only verbal accounts are available. Grain grinding was the first documented wind mill application and it was too straightforward for that time. Indeed, the grinding stone was affixed to the same vertical shaft. The mill machinery was commonly enclosed in a building, which also featured a wall or shield to block the incoming wind from slowing the side of the drag-type rotor that advanced toward the wind. Besides, vertical-axis windmills were used in China, which is often claimed to be its birthplace. Even though the belief that the windmill was invented in China more than 2000 years ago, the earliest actual documentation of a Chinese windmill was in 1219 A.D. by the Chinese statesman Yehlu Chhu-Tshai. In this case, the primary applications were apparently grain grinding and water pumping. (Dodge, 2010)

The first windmill for electricity production was made by James Blyth, a Scottish electrical engineer and university teacher. In late July 1887, he constructed a small windmill for supplying electric light by means of storage cells in the garden of his holiday cottage at Marykirk in Kincardineshire. His paper was delivered to the Philosophical Society of Glasgow in May 2nd.1888. He described the windmill as being of a tripod design, with a 33 foot wind shaft, four arms of 13 feet with canvas sails, and a Burgin dynamo driven from the flywheel using a rope. In May 13 of 1895, he licensed the Glasgow engineering firm named Mavor and Coulson to construct a modified turbine in the grounds of the Montrose asylum. Blyth developed a new design, which replaced the vertical canvas sails with eight semi-cylindrical boxes, with a measure of 10 by 6 feet. It was able to catch the wind and turn a vertical axis that drove a 6 foot flywheel by rotating in a horizontal plane. This new design was tested on Thomas Robinson's anemometer invented in 1846, which Blyth believed would moderate his turbine's velocity and therefore, prevent it from gaining excessive speeds. During the tests, Blyth observed that even in a gale, his new design reached a
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terminal speed with all racing avoided. Though, it appears that the turbine could not be guaranteed to stall in very strong winds. Although, its durability can be judged by the fact that it lasted for twenty-seven years, generating 10 hp to storage cells, and being capable of lighting the asylum (Price, 2005).

Furthermore, the wind turbine industry, especially for generating electricity, continued in development since the 19th century and gained popularity in 21 st century as fossil fuel price fluctuated (Dodge, 2010).

1.1.2. Wind energy market The wind turbine industry has been evolving since ancient times, and it has been in constant development since then. Moreover, as illustrated in Figure 1, the wind capacity installed reached 159,213 MW in 2009, which is 38,312 MW more than in 2008. Also, the growth rate was 31.7%, representing the highest increase since 2001. Since then, the capacity doubles in every three years. Indeed, it was estimated that by the end of 2009, all installed wind turbines worldwide were going to generate 340 TWh per annum, which is the equivalent to the total electricity demand of Italy and it is equivalent to the 2% of the global electricity consumption. Moreover, the wind sector in 2009 had a turnover of 50 billion USD and generates 550,000 jobs worldwide. This number is expected to grow in rapid pace in the future. (WWEA, 2009).

According to the WWEA (2009), Asia accounts for the largest number of new installations with 40.4 % of the total, followed by North America with 28.4 %, and Europe with 27.3 %. Among leading countries in wind industry industry, P.R. China kept the locomotive role in the international wind industry with an increase of 13,800 MW in one year. Then, it became the biggest market for new turbines. In fact, it has been surpassing the double of installations for the fourth year consecutively (WWEA, 2009). Concerning cumulate installed capacity, the United States remains in the first position. Meanwhile, P.R. China took over Germany as number two. On the other side, Latin America had also been encouraged towards growth mainly with the contribution of Brazil and Mexico. In fact, it is expected that installed wind capacity

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will exceed 200,000 MW by 2010. However, WWEA (2009) predicted a global installed capacity of 1,900,000MW will be achieved by the year 2020.

Figure 1. World Total Installed Capacity (WWEA, 2009) According to EWEA (2009), until 2007, the wind energy development was led by the US, P.R. China and Spain, reaching 93,864 MW in installed capacity. The global market in 2007 was worth around 25 billion (EWEA, 2009). Moreover, the top 5 countries in terms of installed capacity are Germany -22.3GW- , US -16.8 GW-, Spain -15.1GW-, India -7.8 GW- and P.R. China -5.9 GW-. In terms of new capacity installation, the top five countries are US -15,244MW-, Spain -3,522 MW, P.R. China -3,304MW-, Germany -1667MW-, and India -1575MW- (EWEA, 2009).

Fortunately, the global financial and economic crisis has not had a negative impact on the general development of the wind sector worldwide. Many governments have expressed their interest to accelerate wind deployment in their countries. They have indicated that investing in wind and other renewable technologies is perceived as the solution to overcome the financial and the ongoing energy crisis. Hence, political stability and in many cases, improved frameworks lead to more investment in wind utilization around the globe (WWEA, 2009).

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1.1.3. Small wind turbine industry

The small wind turbine industry is still in an early stage compared to large wind turbine industry. Indeed, the international certifications are underway and they are not fully accepted in many countries. In fact, there is no global certification focused in the process and performance in the SWT industry. As a matter of fact, the United States and United Kingdom impose their own certifications and requirements, which are different from each other (AWEA, 2009; BWEA, 2009).

According to AWEA (2009), in 2008, the total installation of small wind turbine -0 to 100kW capacity- worldwide accounted for 18,894 units, with a capacity of generating 33,601 MW. The United States small wind turbine market grew 78% in 2008 and reached 17.3MW out of 38.7MW from the whole world. The U.S reached USD$77 out of USD$156 million in sales all over the world (AWEA, 2009) The United Kingdom is the worlds 2 nd biggest market share of small wind turbine 0 to 50kW capacity -, followed by US. (BWEA 2009) There are about 220 small wind turbine manufacturers worldwide, USD$180 million were invested in 18 manufacturers in the past three years by outside investors. Despite, US manufacturers leaded the sales position accounting for 49% in 2008 (AWEA, 2009).

1.2. Research Problem

1.2.1. Research Background
1.2.1.1. Definition of Small Wind Turbine (SWT)

Several organizations around the world have a different definition on small wind turbine, from which, the definitions from AWEA and IEC-61400-2 are widely accepted. On the one hand, according to AWEA (2009), a small wind turbine refers to a wind turbine which has a rated capacity from 0 kW to 100 kW. On the other hand, the IEC-61400-2 (2006) defines it as a wind turbine with less than 200 m2 swept area.

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For this thesis, the authors use the definition used by the AWEA since the swept area of the wind turbine is not taken into account as a main issue to select, describe or compare the wind turbines.

1.2.1.2. Swedish wind energy market

There are several facts that indicate that Sweden is a promising market for small wind turbines. Indeed, the main purpose of the following lines is to explain why Sweden can be considered as an attractive market.

First, according to Johan Ihrfelt - CEO of wind energy company O2- Sweden has some of the best wind conditions in the world, being the growth of the industry and market remarkable indicators of this (Vesterberg, 2010). In fact, according to the Swedish wind map, half of the country receives an average wind speed 5m/s or more. This is the southern area of the country, where the majority of the total inhabitants lives. Therefore, it is considered as a suitable country to develop the wind energy (Zhi Wang, coordinator of business development wind power and partnership development in the regional council in Kalmar County).

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Figure 2. Annual average wind speed at 49 m height above zero-plane displacementas estimated from MIUU-model results (Bergstrm, 2007) Secondly, the government is actively encouraging the wind energy development and favorable policies are being discussed. The European Union requests Sweden to achieve the goal of using renewable energy to 49% by 2020. The Swedish government set up higher goal as 50%. By using wind energy is one of the most important ways to achieve the goal. Sweden is trying to produce 30 tWh by wind energy out of 150tWh in total by 2020 (Wang). During 2009, 198 new large wind turbines were installed in Sweden reaching a total of 1,359 units. The government is planning to double the number by 2020 (Vesterberg, 2010)

Thirdly, as a developed country with highly emphasis on green energy by government, the residences owners are highly conscious concerning environment issues. Until 2010, 43% of total energy was generated by renewable resource. Some people are willing to have own renewable power generation such as small wind
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turbine for environmental awareness reasons. (Sven ke). In fact, 74% of Swedes call for increased investments in wind energy (Vesterberg, 2010).

1.2.1.3. Chinese economics and wind energy industry

P.R. China's exports rose 17.7% in December 2008, meaning the country has exceeded Germany to be the world's largest exporter. (BBC, 2010) This data is seen as an indicator that Chinese manufacturers have proved to be resilient in the downturn, and are being beneficiated from their customers restock. Due to the low cost of labor price and the high production ability, P.R. China is usually considered as the first choice when searching for a low cost solution. Nowadays, as the development of the economics, Chinese manufactures are becoming more competitive concerning manufacturing techniques and quality (BBC, 2010)

In the wind energy market and small wind turbine industry, P.R. China also plays an important role in the total installation, capacity and, production. It has a locomotive role in the international wind industry. Also, China was in the fifth position in terms of installed capacity in 2007 (EWEA 2009)

According to Dou et.al (2010), in 2008, the production volume of all P.R. Chinese small wind turbine manufacturers reached 78,411 units, representing an installed capacity of 72.8MW.

1.2.1.4. Mexican economics and wind energy industry

Mexico has a free market economy with a strong exports sector. By 2009, its GDP accounted for $ 875 billion dollars. Furthermore, Mexican import and exports volumes rely heavily on the United States. In fact, over 80% of Mexicos exports are made to the United States, and 48% of Mexicos imports come from the same country (Villareal, 2010).

Moreover, according to the United States International Trade Commission (2009), the attractiveness of the Mexican market is increasing for foreign companies due to the fact that the number of installations have been increasing since 2005. In fact, Mexico was ranked in the top 20 in wind turbines imports in 2008.

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Concerning the wind industry en Mexico, according to LAWEA (2009), in 2009 the installed capacity of big-scale wind turbines was of 152.58 MW. Also, two major projects have been approved in order to increase the installed capacity. It is planned that 200 MW will be generated by these two projects. Moreover, The Mexican governments target is to reach the installation of 2.5 GW by 2012. 1.2.2. Problem Definition On the one hand, as stated previously, there is an existing demand and high potential market in Sweden for small wind turbine. On the other hand, China has the highest production capacity in this industry and generally considered with competitive price.

However, it is hard for the Swedish customers to find the right SWT from China. Although the Swedes are trying to find the lower cost solution of small wind turbine, the most successful cases comes from Swedish manufacturers, not even Original Equipment Manufacturer from other countries (Johnny Lilja)

Thus, the following main research question has been developed:

How can Chinese and Mexican SWT manufacturers meet the demands from Swedish market?

To answer this main question, it has been developed into three sub-questions:

1.

What are the key requirements, concerns and buying decisions from Swedish

customers?

2.

What are the features of Chinese, Mexican and Swedish SWT?

3.

What are the reasons for which Chinese and Mexican manufacturers have not

succeeded in Sweden?

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Meet the demand

Needs from Sweden

Parameters to evaluate SWT

Figure 3. Research problem

Products features

The Main research question as well as the sub - questions are illustrated in figure 3, the main problem refers to how Chinese and Mexican SWT manufacturers can meet the demands from Swedish market. The way to answer this question is to find the right parameters to evaluate the products for the customers. Thus, the needs from the customers and the performance from the SWT manufacturers are defined furtherer in this paper.

1.3. Purpose
The main purpose of the thesis is to identify important parameters that influence buyers decision making and therefore, to develop a product benchmarking model for buyers called YAK model, which is used mainly as a benchmarking tool to compare each SWT. At the same time, the YAK model helps manufacturers to review their own products according to a standard for Swedish market. Finally, it is used to analyze the results from the products benchmarking.

The following steps have been conducted to fulfill this purpose: 1. Find the main demand, requirements and, buying behavior from Swedish

small wind turbine market. 2. 3. Develop a model which is suitable to evaluate the wind turbines. Provide the case products from China and Mexico to examine and explain

how the model evaluates the products.

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2. METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this chapter is to present the research methods and procedures chosen by the authors in order to answer the central research problem as well as the subresearch questions formulated for this thesis. The chapter starts with an explanation of the research strategy and approach applied. Thereafter, research method and scientific approach are explained, followed by the section concerning data collection and analysis. Finally, the quality of the research is discussed according to the validity and reliability approaches.

2.1. Research Strategy

Five different strategies regarding research types are presented by Yin (2003): case studies, experiments, surveys, histories and archival analysis. For this paper, the case study strategy is used. Indeed, this approach is appropriate when questions such as how and why are distinguished within a research problem. In fact, case studies are preferred when the researchers purpose is to understand a complex social phenomenon that cannot be controlled (Yin, 2003).

Moreover, as figure 4 illustrates, there are four different types of designs for case studies, which are defined depending on the number of specific cases investigated and the number of units to be analyzed. This case study is classified as type 3, which is defined as a multiple-case design given that two specific cases will be analyzed. Also, it is defined as holistic because there is a single unit of analysis for each case, which is the wind turbine as a whole. Finally, it is defined as a holistic multiple-case study (Yin, 2003).

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Figure 4. Basic types of design for case studies (Yin, 2003)

2.2. Scientific Approach

Three different strategies are described by Yin (2003): exploratory, descriptive and explanatory. Furthermore, the most important condition to distinguish among each approach is to identify the type of research question. Indeed, all these approaches will be used through the study. In general, what questions are used when applying an exploratory strategy. However, an explanatory approach is more likely to be used when how and why are present. Moreover, for the thesis, the exploratory approach is used in the identification and definition of the problem studied. The descriptive approach is used in the through the analysis based in the theoretical framework and the empirical study. Finally, the explanatory approach is applied after collecting information in order to explain the causes and effects of the facts (Yin, 2003).

There are three different ways of scientific reasoning: inductive, deductive and abductive. A case study is inductive if there are not specific theories on which a case can be built on, therefore, the researcher use the case study to develop a theory. The deductive approach is used to explain a specific case or even based on theories already developed. When an investigator bases the study on an existing theory, and also new theories are developed, the research approach used is called abductive (Dubois and Gadde, 2002). In fact, the authors use the abductive approach for this case study, given that the theoretical framework and conclusions have a deductive
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approach since they are based on existing theory, while the inductive method is used during the analysis and findings. Also, the development of theory is applied in the development of a model to benchmark products.

2.3. Research Method

There are two different research methods when doing a case study: qualitative and quantitative. They determine the procedures of gathering and analyzing data (Merriam, 1998). On one hand, the quantitative method is preferable to predict and control events and phenomena based on certain patterns. On the other hand, the quantitative concept is preferable and more useful for investigations based in individual evaluations and measurements by using tools such as surveys (Merriam, 1998)

Since the objective of the thesis is to develop theory rather than testing it, the qualitative research method will be used due to the fact that is more suitable to be used for this specific case.

2.4. Data Collection

Merriam (1998) argues that it is convenient to use several sources of data when doing case studies in order to have deeper understanding of it. Thus, six sources of evidence can be distinguished: documentation, archival records, direct observations, interviews, participant observation and physical artifacts. Therefore, the higher the number of consulted sources, the better the investigation can be considered. (Yin, 2003).

This study is based on interviews and documentation as principal sources of evidence. The interviews represent a core source of information since it is possible to investigate a phenomena in a deeper sense. Also, this source allows the investigator to research directly the case problem. The documentation is a stable source which can be consulted continuously given that it is a stable source.

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Information has been collected from primary and secondary sources to complement each other in order to validate each other. In the next lines, methodology concerning both sources is developed.

2.4.1. Primary Data Primary data is information collected by the researcher with a specific purpose. In this sense, data collected is new data since it is adapted by the researcher to the specific case. Primary data is often collected through interviews and observations, from which interviews can be mentioned as a suitable method for gathering information since the researcher can obtain the required information by asking the correct questions (Merriam, 1998).

Concerning the interviews, three types of interview structures can be distinguished: Highly structured/standardized, semi structured, and unstructured/informal (Merriam, 1998). For this investigation, the primary information has been obtained from qualitative interviews with employees mainly at management levels of companies and organizations related to SWT industry in Mexico, China and Sweden. The method selected by the authors to conduct the interviews is semi-structured, which is combines a mix of more or less structured questions (Merriam, 1998).

In addition, telephone interviews have been also conducted, this has been a useful tool since there is a big physical distance between the country where the study have been performed and the interviewees in Mexico and China. Therefore, this tool decreased the amount of resources allocated to perform more interviews. By using the semistructured interviews, it has been possible to have a better understanding about the subject because this structure gives more flexibility to the interviewee when answering. Also, it allows the researcher to obtain information concerning contacts from which more information can be gathered, Merriam (1998) refers to this activity as the snow-ball sampling, which will be explained furtherer in this chapter.

Furthermore, the snow-ball approach was used by gathering information from companies and third parties aiming to confirm the selection of these benchmarking partners.

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As the main sources to select the benchmarking partners, the authors account for the following interviewees: Zhi Wang, Coordinator of Business Development Wind Power and Partnership Development in The Regional Council in Kalmar County. Johnny Lilja, Project Manager from Energy agency for Southeast Sweden. Sven ke, owner of Hannevind AB, a leading Swedish SWT manufacturer. Jorge Landa, Director of the Mexican Association of Wind Energy; Pablo Gottfried, Project Manager of the Mexican wind turbine manufacturer named Potencia Industrial; and Jorge Huacuz, manager of the non-conventional energy sources department from the Institute of Electric Investigations. In fact, the names, nationalities and corresponding organizations of the interviewed people can be found in the following list.

Belgium China

Mr. Alex De Broe, 3E Ms. Ada Chou, Sales Manager, Oulu Mr. De Chang Shen, Vice Sectary-General Professor, Chinese Wind Energy Equipment Association Mr. Jimmy Zhuang, Sales Manager, Hua Ying Mr. Lin Yu, M.D., SWG Mr. Marvin Chin, Sales Director, Ghrepower Mr. Michael Guan, Manager, Hopeful Wind Energy Mr. Mike Shi, International Sales Director, Anhua New Energy Ms. Yasmina Wu, Vice General Manager, Winpower Mr. Yong Zhao Li, Marketing Dept, Hong Ying

Germany Italy Mexico

Mr. Frank Rehmet, Director Publications & Member Relations, WWEA Mr. De Stasio Michele, Responsabile Commerciale, Tekna Energy Mr. Jorge Landa, Director, Mexican Association of Wind Energy Dr. Jorge M. Huacuz Villamar, Non-conventional Energy Sources Manager, Institute of Electric Investigations Mr. Pablo Gottfried, Project Manager, Potencia Industrial

Sweden

Mr. Johnny Lilja, Project Manager, Energy Agency for Southeast Sweden

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Mr. Sven ke, CEO, Hannevind AB Mr. Zhi Wang, Coordinator of Business Development Wind power and Partnership Development, The Regional Council in Kalmar County UK Mr. Matthew Caughie, Managing Director, Kirkbride Farm

Indeed, the interviews conducted in Mexico, China and Sweden has been performed directly in the interviewees companies. The information collected from interviewees whose country is Italy, Germany, UK or Belgium has been obtained by meeting them in Husums wind energy fair, which took place in Germany in March of 2010, and also in Shanghais wind energy fair and exposition in China in May of 2010.

2.4.2. Secondary Data According to Kinnear and Taylor (1991), Secondary data is information that has been collected for other purposes. This resource is useful to gain a basic understanding of a subject. This data can be found on books, journals and internet. It can be divided into internal sources and external sources. The internal sources concerns to material that has been published within the case company such as annual reports. By using external resource, it means that the researcher gather the information from books, internet or journals, from which the information is not concerning the specific case. In this case, the secondary information has been gathered from both internal and external sources. As internal sources of information we can account mainly on brochures regarding specific products and companys information. As external sources, the authors based the research on books, articles and internet.

2.5. Selection of Data Sources

In order to collect data in the most appropriate way, the researcher needs to consider what, when, where and who to investigate. When analyzing this, the researcher will be dealing with sampling, which involves the selection of a research site, time, people and events. There are several ways of doing this sampling: typical, unique, maximum variation, convenience, snowball chain/network, and theoretical sampling (Merriam, 1998). For this case study two types are used: convenience sampling and snowball, chain/network sampling. Indeed, convenience sampling is applied since the authors
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are from the mentioned countries. This fact makes those countries the most convenient for the authors in terms of knowledge availability. Finally, the snowball, chain/network approach is used to obtain information regarding contacts and involved organizations about companies from which more information can be gathered.

2.6. Quality of Research

The purpose of this part is to account for the validity and reliability of the study in order to build trustfulness in the results provided. Validity and reliability can be achieved through careful attention to a studys conceptualization and how the data was collected, analyzed, interpreted and the way of the presentation of the results (Merriam, 1998). In the following parts, the distinction of internal and external validity will be explained.

2.6.1. Internal Validity Internal validity refers to the extent of how the findings from the research match the reality. In order to enhance the internal validity, there are six basic strategies, from which, triangulation can be distinguished. Furthermore, triangulation refers to the usage of multiple researchers, sources or methods to confirm the findings.

For this thesis, the authors relies on three mains sources to confirm the information. This approach has been used to confirm the information about the manufacturing companies and their products. Firstly, as mentioned before, interviews with companies employees mainly at management levels were conducted, from whose we obtained the information in first instance. Secondly, information from organizations and third parties involved in the wind turbine industry was gathered. Thirdly, brochures concerning products specifications and companys information have been consulted.

2.6.2. External Validity Merriam (1998) describes external validity as the extent of how the findings of one study can be applied to other situations and, how general the results are. In this case,

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striving towards an objective theoretical framework has been a way to achieve external validity. This study is based on benchmarking manufacturers products using Mexican and Chinese companies as a sample. Therefore, since the model developed for this study concerns factors, variables and parameters specific only for wind turbines, it cannot be applicable in other industry or products. However, the model developed by the authors is useful to benchmark any wind turbine and compare it with the standard chosen for the Swedish market. Merriam (1998) defines three strategies to accomplish external validity: (1) rich, thick description, (2) typicality or modal category (3) and multisite designs. By providing a rich, thick description of the issues, readers decides by themselves the extent on how the learning can be transferred. By defining the typicality of the issue, readers can compare to their specific issues to decide if the categories of problems are related. Finally, through a multisite design, the study is applicable to a wide range of readers. According to these definitions and given the nature of the study, a thick and rich description is chosen for this investigation.

2.6.3. Reliability Reliability refers to the minimization of mistakes within a study, meaning that if a study is replicated, the outcome will be the same. Furthermore, reliability refers to the consistency between the data collected and the results of the study (Merriam, 1998). For this investigation, the interviews have been recorded in order to avoid misinterpretations and enhance the quality of the information. Also, this reinforces the reliability of the investigation (Merriam, 1998).

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3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The present chapter is dedicated to describe the theoretical framework of the thesis. Furthermore, the authors use three different theoretical models in order to develop a product benchmarking model to evaluate wind turbines. Indeed, the approaches used to answer the research questions are buying behavior, benchmarking, wind speed physics and Betz law.

Firstly, the benchmarking process and buying behavior theories are described. Furthermore, these theories are used as basis to perform the investigation in the most adequate way. Secondly, the wind speed physics and Betz Law is described in order to point the basic foundations to develop the specific model.

3.1. Benchmarking
According to Cook (1995), Benchmarking is the process of identifying, understanding and adapting outstanding practices from within the same organization or from other businesses to help improve performance. Spendolini (1992) introduced the concept of learning within this context by including some reference to learning from others in the definition. Likewise, Patterson (1995) converge the two previous ideas by stating that at the core of benchmarking is the concept of learning and sharing. By comparing work practices with others, you can gain valuable information that you can adapt to your own situation.

3.1.1. Types of benchmarking According to Spendolini (1992), there are 3 major types of benchmarking depending on the target or object intended study: internal, competitive and functional, and generic benchmarking.

Internal benchmarking refers to the study of the internal processes and activities within a company as a start point to identify the best internal business practices. Also, it is a base for a further investigation and measurement involving external benchmarking aiming to identify the performance standards of a single organization.

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Competitive benchmarking concerns the identification of the products, services and work processes of the direct competitors. Its objective is to identify the previously mentioned issues in order to compare them with the own organization.

Functional or Generic benchmarking involves the identification of the products, services and work processes of organizations that may or may not be direct competitors of the own organization. Its main purpose is to identify the issues or areas in those organizations which are recognized to have excellence in certain areas.

For this thesis, the competitive benchmarking approach is used given that the comparison of the small wind turbines is performed against competitors products.

Moreover, there are many reasons to justify the usefulness of benchmarking: strategic planning, forecasting and predicting trends, functional learning and development of new ideas, compare competitors products or processes and finally, to set goals. Indeed, a commonly used type is to compare feature by feature the competitors products or services with the ones from the company which is performing the analysis. In general, the finished goods are often observed in their retail state rather than the process of production. Also, they are usually investigated in terms of the features embedded in the product itself. (Spendolini, 1992).

The previous information is just the start point when conducting benchmarking activities. Indeed, a five-stage benchmarking model is introduced by Spendolini (1992) in order to conduct the investigation in and accurate and adequate manner. This model is explained in the following lines.

3.1.2. The five-stage benchmarking process model Benchmarking is described as a structural process. Its structure is provided by the development of a step by step model compounded by five stages. The creation of a model for benchmarking activities is important since this will give structure to the process (Spendolini, 1992). The five-stage benchmarking model by Spendolini (1992) can be applied to any benchmarking project by any type of organization. It defines a set of activities or steps to be followed through the process which are organized in a logical sequence
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Figure 5. The five-stage benchmarking process (Spendolini, 1992)

Stage 1: Determine what to benchmark According to Spendolini (1992), the first step in developing a benchmarking plan and deciding what to benchmark is the identification of the customer of the information, who in this context, refers to the user. This is very important for two reasons:

- The customer usually is the individual or group who identifies the information requirements according to a critical need. Therefore, the information will be collected according to these needs.

- The customer establishes deadlines or a time frame for the completion of the benchmarking investigation and also for project checkpoints. Spendolini (1992) argue that customers requirements affect the benchmarking schedule and all the involved activities, the needs of information must be explicitly defined before launching any activity. Also, in order to establish the information requirements of the investigation, it is required to spend some time with the customer
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aiming to create a diagnosis of the benchmark, which must be focused in the following issues:

- Identifying customers. Includes the identification of individuals and groups that will use the information.

- Type of benchmarking. Concerns to the desired target of the benchmarking activity, with an emphasis on the competitive positioning, i.e. internal, competitive or functional.

- Type of information. Refers to the focus of the investigation as defined by the established need, i.e. products/services, work processes, support functions, organizational performance, strategy. - Use of information. Refers to the question: Which is the intended use of the information collected? i.e. strategic planning, forecasting, new ideas, product/process comparison, goal setting.

- Quantity of information. Is the amount of information desired and needed from the customer.

- Quality of information. Refers to the level of validation and reliability of the acquired information.

- Reporting expectations. The requirements regarding the report of results are different for each customer. In fact, the format, frequency and maintenance can vary.

- Scope of benchmarking activity. Concerns to the amount of benchmarking activity planned or anticipated over time. It can be a one-time event, a periodic activity, or continuous activity.

The selection of the subject of investigation and the information that is going to be gathered during the benchmarking activities relies on the customers needs and

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requirements, taking into account that the customer is the user in most of the cases. (Spendolini 1992). Once the customers information needs and requirements have been established, the investigation may continue forward to the creation of a benchmarking team.

Stage 2: Forming a benchmarking team Spendolini (1992) explains that the type and number of people involved with benchmarking activities are issues that are needed to be addressed early in the benchmarking process. It is important to bear in mind that the team members are engaged with sharing the work load. Therefore, the development of an equal division of labor is required. Also, it must be considered the fact that by identifying a qualified and motivated team of benchmark early in the process it is possible to take advantage of the experiences, professional affiliations and individual interests.

Stage 3: Identifying benchmark partners Spendolinis (1992) defines a benchmark partner as any person or organization that supplies you with the information related to your benchmarking investigation. In this context, it is important to create a benchmarking network by the development of longterm partnerships and relationships. Indeed, the process of collecting information and use the sources of useful information may be more stable and reliable over time. Likewise, there are several advantages of building an information network. First, the time dedicated to gather information can be substantially reduced. Second, the list of contacts can be narrowed to those ones that have provided reliable information before. Third, if the investigations scope or information needs changes, the study would not have to start from the beginning, the start point would be the information network already developed (Spendolini, 1992).

Moreover, during the investigation, it is important to know the sources of reliable and valid information (Spendolini, 1992). Validity is establishing the correct operational measures for the concepts being studied (Yin, 2003). Therefore, it refers to the establishment of reliable sources of information. Moreover, Reliability refers to demonstrate that the operations of study can be repeated with the same results (Yin, 2003).
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Furthermore, it is important to distinguish the partners according to the desired state of performance. The terms used to describe these partner companies include best-inclass, world-class and best practice. The amount of information available and the opportunities of simple improvement may vary from each type of partner. In fact, the best-in-class and world-class companies offer a lower amount of information available, and also the opportunities of simple improvement are smaller. The best practice partners offer a higher amount of information available and greater opportunities of improvement (Spendolini, 1992). Therefore, it can be implied that the differences among the partner companies relies on two factors: the amount of information regarding the area of interest, and the degree of improvement desired. These two factors will affect the decision of the company that is performing the investigation on which company to select as partner.

What are the most valid and reliable sources for identifying best practices companies? Spendolini (1992) argues mention seven main sources of information regarding the question:

1. Government sources. Federal, state and local resources.

2. Subject matter experts. Includes consultants, academics, and analysts.

3. Special-interest groups. Trade and professional associations.

4. Media. Trade and professional publications and journals, business related publications, and materials generated by the government.

5. Employees, customers and suppliers. Those most familiar with the organization.

6. Benchmark partners. Referrals from best practices organizations.

7. Foreign data sources. Such as banks, multi-national corporate offices, consulates, foreign international databases.

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In order to complete successfully this stage, the team must have been identified the benchmarking partners by the development of networks. Indeed, there are several sources to identify those partners, from which it is possible to obtain valid and reliable information. After accomplishing this stage, the investigator may continue with the collection and analysis of the data.

Stage 4: Collecting and analyzing benchmarking information This stage involves collection and analysis of the benchmark information. By this step, it is implied that the previous stages have been completed. Furthermore, In order to be able to understand the information obtained from other companies, it is needed to understand the own organizations products, services or processes (Spendolini, 1992).

Once the type of benchmarking to perform has been established, the method to collect the information must be discussed, from which the following ways can be distinguished: telephone interviews, personal meetings/site visits, surveys,

publications/media, and archival research (Spendolini, 1992). Indeed, the key to success in benchmarking is to collect the right information, which has to be collected both quantifiably and qualitatively. Likewise, to avoid missing information, the investigations must rely on different sources (Cook, 1995).

After the information has been gathered and summarized, the next step is to analyze it. Some recommendations are suggested in order to begin the process of determining the meaning of the information collected (Spendolini, 1992):

- Check for misinformation. This is, incorrect information due to such factors as misinterpretation, or improper recording or transcription. However, one indicator of misinformation is that the information obtained deviates significantly from what was expected or from other that should be comparable.

- Identify patterns. Find patterns or trends within the information gathered.

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- Identify omissions or displacement. Omission refers to the data that should be available in the analysis, while displacement concerns to the significant changes in data trends without explanation.

- Check out-of-place information. This is, information that is significantly deviated compared to other information obtained. The best way to cope with this kind of information is to follow up with the source organization reporting the out-of-place information in order to validate it.

- Draw conclusions. The ultimate goal of this stage is to understand relevant issues of other organizations and use that information to improve the own. The information collected from the different organizations is reviewed in order to eliminate unreliable, inaccurate, false, and irrelevant data.

After completing this stage by analyzing the information obtained, the implementation must be executed taking for granted that the previous stages have been accomplished successfully.

Stage 5: Taking action Even though benchmarking is a process of investigation, the main motivation to conduct this study is to stimulate and support change. Then, the primary objective of benchmarking is to take action. At this point, there are several types of activities suggested to implement (Spendolini, 1992):

- Produce a benchmarking report. After the basic analysis has been completed, a major task of the benchmarking team is to generate a report and deliver it to the customers. This report summarizes the collected and analyzed data. Also, it can be used as a record of the organizations benchmarked and key project contacts, as well as a communication product for internal employees and functions.

- Present findings to benchmarking customers. In some occasions, the benchmarking team is required to deliver a presentation to the customers, which is an oral version of the benchmarking report. Furthermore, reports and presentations offer an opportunity to expand the audience for the findings and stimulate action to initiate change.
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- Identify possible product and process improvements. One of the key activities of the team is to find opportunities for product and process improvement. Therefore, it has to be decided what action will be taken as result of the investigation.

- Implement outcomes. Most of the product and process improvements made by benchmarking team concerns: changes to the product or process, learning in order to bring new ideas into the organization, and building functional networks with other companies.

- Recycling efforts. It refers to the extent of the changes made by the organization to the benchmarking process in order to improve it according to the organizations requirements.

This is the final stage of the benchmarking process. It is the stage in which all the improvements and changes have to be applied whether they concern products or processes.

For the accurate implementation of the benchmarking activities, the authors followed the previous stages by adapting it to the comparison of the wind turbines as itself. Furthermore, the investigation is based in the embedded features of each product.

3.2. Buying Behavior

Buying behavior is defined as the decisions and actions of the people involved in the buying and using products (Pride et. al, 2008). Furthermore, consumer buying behavior refers to the purchase of products for personal or household use. Meanwhile, business buying behavior refers to the purchasing of products by producers, resellers, government and institutions (Pride et. al, 2008)

According to Birn (2004), consumers have values, perceptions, preferences and a behavior pattern as a result of environmental influences. As the most important influences that affect the buying behavior, it can be accounted for leisure habits, health factors, life style, race, religion and nationality. In order to find the most
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appropriate way to market products it is needed to investigate those factors. Also, by analyzing different cultural life styles the investigator is able to identify both product and brand preferences. Furthermore, international research is often used to concentrate on identifying the differences between consumers in different markets. Nowadays, as more international marketing companies are developed, researching is focused in understanding the similarities among consumers in the global marketplace (Birn, 2004).

Moreover, there are three different types of buying behavior according to Birn (2004):

- Routine buying. Occur when the consumer purchases low-cost goods frequently and does not give much thought to the purchase.

- Initial problem solving. Occur when the consumer might want another product or brand but does not know much about it. Therefore and investigation regarding specific issues in order to know more about the products and brands will be conducted by the buyer.

- Extended problem solving. The consumer is interested in purchasing a specific product in a product line, from which he/she has little or no knowledge about

3.2.1. Purchasing process Several roles can be distinguished in the customers buying process (Birn, 2004):

- The initiator. Is the first person to think of the idea of buying a particular product - The influencer. The person who influences others in taking the final purchase decision - The decider. The person who takes the key decision - The buyer. Is the person who makes the purchase - The user. Refers to the consumer or user of the purchased good or service

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Furthermore, the purchasing process can be divided in five different stages (Birn, 2004):

1. Problem recognition. In this stage, the consumer recognizes a need to be filled or a problem to be solved by the purchase of a product.

2. Information search. The consumer investigates the available alternatives in the market.

3. Evaluation of the alternatives. Refers to the moment when consumers decide among one product or another by comparing its characteristics and attributes of each one. The consumers will pay most of their attention to the attributes that reflect their needs the most.

4. Purchasing decision. Refers to the purchasing activity conducted by the consumer. 5. Post-purchase behavior. Refers to the consumers reaction according to the level of how the product has met their expectations.

There are several issues that influence the consumer through the buying decision process, which can be divided in three types: Situational, psychological and, social influences (Pride et. al, 2008). Indeed, the situational influences include the consumers physical and social environment, time, purchase reason and the buyers mood and condition in that moment. Moreover, the psychological influences concerns the buyers perception of the product, motives of purchasing, learning from past experiences, attitudes, personality and also his/her lifestyle. Finally, as social influences it is accounted for the family, role in the society, social class, cultures and, subcultures (Pride et. al, 2008)

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3.3. Wind Speed Physics & Betz Law

This theory is the base of the YAK model, which is presented in chapter 5. It is based mainly in the wind and, energy generation basic physics theories. The main purpose of this theory is to explain and provide of a background on which the mentioned model is based on since SWTs functionality relies on physics laws.

Furthermore, for the readers who are willing to read in detail about this theory, it is explained in detail in the Appendix, which is located at the end of this thesis.

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4. EMPIRICAL STUDY
The Empirical Study will basically follow the benchmarking steps illustrated in Figure 5 of the theoretical framework based in the comparison of the products. The information gathered through each of the steps is explained. Thus, this information is used as a base for the following chapters.

4.1. Benchmarking Steps

4.1.1. Determine what to benchmark According to Spendolini (1992), the first step in developing a benchmarking plan and deciding what to benchmark is the identification of the customer of the information, who in this context, refers to the user. In order to establish the information requirements of the investigation, it is required to spend some time with the customer aiming to create a diagnosis of the benchmark (Spendolini, 1992).

For instance, the first step of this investigation is to set a plan for the benchmarking process by specifying and delimitating the information needs. Thereafter, a plan was established in order to obtain this information.

In this case, the information needs regards to the main research question and the subquestions as well as the purpose described in earlier stages of this thesis, which were defined by the authors since they are the main users of this information.

Therefore, the methodology for gathering the information has been described in order to establish the quantity and quality of information research for. Also, it is taken as a base to know where and how to obtain this data.

The previous requirements has been fulfilled in order to form a base on which the study relies, given that this part is the start point of the investigation, a set of steps to be followed is of core importance for the accurate development of the study. So the decision to develop a model in order to benchmark the SWT from Chinese and Mexican manufacturers rose from the main research question and the respective subquestions.
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4.1.2. Forming a benchmarking team This stage of the benchmarking process regards to building a group of people with the purpose of conducting the investigation. Even though the study can be conducted by one person, it is not completely recommended due to the amount of information to gather and activities to be performed. Also, it is important to form a group conformed by individuals with different backgrounds and therefore, skills. (Spendolini, 1992). In this case, the group assigned to perform the investigation has been formed without taking into account a specific background since the main purpose of this investigation is mainly academic.

4.1.3. Identifying benchmarking partners This stage of the benchmarking process refers to the identification and selection of the benchmarking partners, which in this case are represented by the SWT. As mentioned in the methodology, the authors use two different approaches in order to select the benchmarking partners. First, the authors have decided to select the companies from Mexico, China and Sweden due to the accessibility to information taking into account that the investigators are from the first two countries respectively, and the study has been conducted from Sweden. Thereafter, information regarding the existing manufacturers has been collected mainly through secondary sources such as internet and journals.

The authors identified ten main SWT manufacturers from China, which has shown a good performance in both local and foreign markets, these manufacturers are listed below.

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Pos

Company name (in English)

Annual Annual Installed Export production Export Export production capacity Revenue value USD USD pcs kW pcs kW million million 17.57 27,078 35,173.5 20,1 30,581.4 13.52

Yangzhou Shenzhou 1 Wind-driven Generator Co., Ltd Ningbo Feng Shen Feng Dian Science 2 and Technology Co., Ltd 3 GhrePower Guangzhou 4 Hyenergy Technology Co., Ltd Hunan ZKENERGY 5 Science&Technology Co., Ltd Qingdao Anhua New 6 Energy Equipment Co., Ltd Zhejiang Huaying 7 Wind Power Generator Co., Ltd Shan Dong Ning Jin 8 Hua Ya Industrial Co., Ltd 9 Holito Wind Power Beijing Bergey 10 Windpower Co., Ltd

8.77 1.35 4.39

5,2 3,232 6,9

5,03 1,263 3,76

3,142 309 4,6

2,455 1,315 2,1

6.91 3.77 3.27

9.98

8,62

3,488

3,673

3,932

3.26

3.22

1,03

3,35

758

2,479

2.48

4.02

299

2,345.5

204

1,262.5

2.15

2.93 2.13 3.40

1,06 1,905 1,291

1,49 1,765 2,065

975 1,675 455

1,675 1,605 770

1.99 1.65 1.29

After analyzing the possible benchmarking partners, five principal companies are distinguished to conduct the product benchmark:

- Hannevind from Sweden - JBA vind from China - Pitch Wind from China - HuaYing from China - Potencia Industrial from Mexico

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Hannevind has been identified as the best practice company from Sweden according to information from Johnny Lilja. For this matter, it is considered as a best practice and therefore, it is used as a standard in the benchmarking process.

4.1.4. Collect and analyze benchmarking information This stage has been the most demanding because it concerns the collection and analysis of the information about the products to be benchmarked and therefore, the information has been analyzed. Moreover, in order to analyze the information through the model developed by the authors, there is additional information that has to be gathered to choose the factors and variables that affect the results of the analysis, which is explained in detail in the following chapters. However, the information regarding the products and companies has been collected through personal interviews with employees of these companies. First, it is important to identify the main customers needs and buying decisions to be able to understand the wind industry environment and afterwards, know the main concerns and parameters to take into account for the analysis of the information. Indeed, Factory owners and farmers are the most interested customers in gaining benefits by installing SWT (Lilja and ke). Firstly, they can get the economic benefits from saving the electricity - The retail electricity price for commercial use count hourly, while for residential use it counts in monthly. For instance, it can be as high as 5kr/kWh during peak hours. As they usually located in remote areas with rich wind resources, if they install a high capacity SWT (more than 10kW) adding a high tower (more than 10 meters), the SWTs result in good energy production, e.g. the payback time for SWT could be as short as 8 years, while the expect lifetime is 20 years (ke 2010). It implies that the factory or farms do not need to pay for electricity after 8 years, assuming that there will be no increase in the energy consumption.

Secondly, by owning a small wind turbine, they can be independent from the energy company and therefore, avoid the fluctuations of the electricity price in peak hours. In Sweden, the commercial use electricity price varies substantially every hour, being a concern from factory owners and farmers, who are willing to minimize the electricity costs. So, the positive side for factories of owning their own electricity production, is
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that they can adjust its production and working hours according to their own convenience and willingness (Lilja, ke).

Thirdly, by using the wind resources as green energy, they fulfill their social responsibility by promoting a green image, which is not only fulfilling their own desire to contribute to the environment, but also is good for reducing operating cost.

The residential house owners are not the main customers for small wind turbine nowadays, this is mainly because of the inefficiency of production (Lilja). It is not easy to put a tower with enough height, which is typically 25 meters in Sweden. Indeed, SWT at low heights always deliver bad performance no matter how advanced it is. At the same time, the residential electricity price is low and relatively stable. Therefore, a house owner cannot get the same economic benefits compare with factory owners and farmers. 4.1.5. Customers concerns There are several concerns from the Swedish customers. The first one is the electricity price. SWTs are still in the high cost production stage and from the economic point of view, the lower the price, the more attractive the product is (Lilja).

Secondly, customers concern about electricity production. There are different ways to estimate the production. A common method used for calculating production is by using rated capacity times 8760 hours (per year) times capacity factor -usually 20 to 30% -. However, it is an inaccurate way according to Sven ke, the owner of a Swedish SWT manufacturer. Because the wind conditions are different in every region, also the SWTs power curve (power generated by turbine versus wind speed) differs among wind turbines, and then the capacity factors are different. Besides, every manufacturer use different ways to define the rated capacity, some of them use the 11m/s as the wind condition (definition by IEC-61400-2 standard), while some others use the optimum output or even the peak output.

Thirdly, from economic point of view, the customers care about the payback period, which is, the period of time in which the wind turbine owner will recover the

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investment (Lilja). This is directly related to the first two elements: the price and the energy production.

Last but not the least, the customers also concern about the safety. As more wind turbines have been installed and some safety problems have occurred, the public started to pay more attention to the safety and reliability of the SWTs (Lilja).

4.1.5.1.

Market requirements

According to the type of main customers and specific conditions in Sweden, there are some specific requirements or demands for small wind turbine. First, according to Lilja and ke, the main demand for the rated capacity is from 10kW to 30kW. This is because these SWT are mainly for factory owners and farmers and their energy consumption fits the wind turbine within this capacity range.

Secondly, the customers in Sweden are looking for a SWT that fit their energy consumption rather than the one with highest energy production (ke). This is because when the production is higher than consumption, the surpassed electricity does not represent any income. Instead, SWT owners may have to pay for it because of the high tax of metering the electricity into the grid and low payment of the metering price.

Thirdly, as the average wind speed is around 5 to 6 meters per second, the turbines should be designed to be suitable for this wind conditions. Also, the turbines with high production under this wind condition would have higher efficiency in Sweden.

Last but not least, the height of wind turbine would ideally reach 25 meters in Sweden (Lilja). Even for a small wind turbine of 5.5KW capacity, it is suggested by the experts to have more than a 21 meters tower (ke).

According to incomplete statistics, at the end of 2008, there were 102 manufacturers in the SWT industry, 74 of them are developing and manufacturing SWT, 28 of them are supporter enterprises, and 10 of them are researchers (Dou et. al. 2010).

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4.1.5.2.

Review of the SWT business environment

The environmental awareness level of Swedes is quite high. Therefore, a lot of people cares about the environment and would like to do something, even to pay premium prices in order to help the environment (Lilja, Wang). However, the retail electricity prices as well as the government policy in Sweden are not towards installing a small wind turbine from the economic perspective (Lilja, ke). The retail electricity price for residential use changes every month, e.g. the price in May 2010 was of

1.1kr/kWh, while in January of 2010 it was 1.9kr/kWh (ke). In general, the residential electricity price is not high compared with other EU countries. The unfavorable metering-system and policy handicap the willingness for householders to own a small wind turbine. There are two meters for calculating the electricity bill, i.e. one for generation and one for consumption. The residences have to pay taxes for metering their own generated electricity into the national grid while they may get paid a small amount from the energy company. In this situation, the householders can hardly get any economic benefits. The metering system and policy are under reviewing and some people expect that a new net-metering policy to be introduced at earliest in autumn 2010 (Lilja)

The height is a crucial element to take account for the real wind energy that could be used (Lilja 2010 and ke 2010). Obstacles like buildings and trees can influence the quality of wind. In low places, even the wind speed is high, it is affected by surroundings and becomes turbulence wind, which makes wind turbine hard to capture the energy. Therefore, the turbine height should be at least 10 meters higher than the top of the obstacles within 100 meters, as it is illustrated in figure 6. The optimum turbine height in Sweden is around 25 meters. (Lilja 2010)

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Figure 6, obstruction of the wind by a building or tree of height(H) There is abundant wind energy in Sweden, especially in the southeast part. The average wind speed is around 5 to 6 meters per second. In that area, it is suitable to install a small wind turbine (ke).

4.1.5.3.

SWT industry in P.R. China

Major SWTs in P.R. China were developed and produced for the domestic rural area where there is no connection to the electricity grid. So, the products were more focused on low cost and low capacity off-grid system. Recently, the government have been promoting actively the project bring electricity to rural area, while the local governments installed many hybrid road lighting system (combining solar and wind energy). Thus, the industry has been developing rapidly since 1999. Until 2008, the annual average growth was 34.86% in terms of installed capacity (Dou, Charlie et. al 2010).

As competitions becomes severe in domestic market, the SWT industry as well as other export business started to focus more on technology, quality and innovation, trying to be in aligned with the international standards (Dou, Charlie et. al 2010)

As mentioned previously in this chapter, ten main SWTs manufacturers have been distinguished based on their export revenue and good performance in the local market. Concerning these manufacturers, the most relevant information from them can be found in the following lines.

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Shenzhou (SWG) No.1 exporter: USD 13.52m Export ratio: 76.95% Product range: 200W to 50kW Mainly for off-grid USD 0.73m R&D expense Found in 1996 189 employees until Apr 2010 Own design, research, development, manufacturing, sales, marketing and after-sale service

Feng Shen Feng Dian (WinPower) No.2 exporter: USD 6.91m Export ratio: 78.73% Product: 300W to 20kW Mainly for off-grid Project with government Highly innovative product combined solar and wind energy Attended Summit in Husum,Germany Customized energy solution service

GhrePower No.3 exporter: USD 3.77m Export ratio: 278% Product: 300W to 100kW Mainly for off-grid Office in Europe and America Whole energy solution service

Hyenergy No.4 exporter: USD 3.27m Export ratio: 74% Product: 400W to 2kW

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Focus on 400W Successful projects in hybrid street light

ZKENERGY No.5 exporter: USD 3.26m Export ratio: 33% Product: 300W to 1kW Focus on 300W 2nd largest producer in China Focus on off-grid wind and solar energy solution

Anhua No.6 exporter: USD 2.48m Export ratio: 77% Product: 1kW to 20kW Focus small wind turbine below 10kW Cooperate with China Mobile, Pepsi, Hei LongjiangRui Hao Group in domestic market

Hua Ying No.7 exporter: USD 2.15m Export ratio: 54% Product: 1kW to 25kW Mainly for on-grid export Acclaim as high technology oriented - variable blade pitch technology Attended the summit in Husum, Germany and Shanghai, China Have CE mark, ISO90001 certificate, and RoHS certificate

Hua Ya No.8 exporter: USD 1.99m Export ratio: 68% Product: 300W to 5kW

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Holito No.9 exporter: USD 1.65m Export ratio: 77% Product: 300W to 5kW

Beijing Bergey No.10 exporter: USD 1.29m Export ratio: 38% Product: 1kW and 10kW Invested by BWC from US Many successful projects in China Focus on 1kW Offer solution combined Solar and wind energy

4.1.5.4.

SWT industry in Mexico

Regarding the wind industry en Mexico, according to LAWEA (2009), in 2009 the installed capacity of big-scale wind turbines was of 152.58 MW. Also, two major projects have been approved in order to increase the installed capacity. It is planned that 200 MW will be generated by these two projects. Moreover, The Mexican governments target is to reach the installation of 2.5 GW by 2012.

Concerning the SWT manufacturers in the country, it has been found that there is only one manufacturer registered and recognized by the Mexican Association of Wind Energy -AMDEE- (Gottfried, 2010). Indeed, the reasons to explain the lack of manufacturers regards to the fact that the government has not created policies and regulations to grant incentives to manufacturers nor to users (Landa, 2010). Also, the topic concerning renewable energy is still in development within the market, the usage of new technologies to take advantage of wind resources is considered a new issue. Therefore, the different stakeholders must educate and inform the population in order to increase the demand and thus the attractiveness of the market (Huacuz, 2010)

Moreover, it has been found that there is a high level of uncertainty due to the slow growth of the market combined with a lack of entrepreneurship. Both factors are considered as he main reasons for the companies and investors to not invest in the
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SWT industry in Mexico. Despite, there is a possibility for companies to invest in a manufacturing company in Mexico with the main purpose of exporting. But the Mexican companies are willing to enter the local market before exporting. Another issue is the paradigm existing among Mexicans, whose think that quality things cannot be made in Mexico. which is completely wrong according to the interviewees because Mexico has the infrastructure and technology to manufacture and compete in international markets in terms of technology. Indeed, the problem with some companies that has failed to survive in this industry is that they have not been able to meet the needed quality standards mainly due to the lack of financial resources to invest.

As stated at the beginning of this part, the previous information has been gathered through personal interviews and secondary sources. This data is the core of the study since the analysis is realized by taking into account all these factors as variables to benchmark the wind turbines.

Moreover, the analysis of the information as well as the information regarding the specifications of the products is presented in chapter 6. Also, the authors refer to the physics theory and Betz law in the following chapter for a better understanding on the application of this theory.

Potencia Industrial

As stated before, Potencia Industrial is the only SWTs manufacturer recognized by the Mexican Association of Wind Energy. It is a Mexican manufacturer of wind turbines since 1975. Nowadays it has 450 employees. This company is capable to produce 20,000 turbines annually. They produce wind turbines from 5Kw. until 100 Kw. considering the ones of 5, 10 and 20 Kw. as small ones suitable for an average size house.

The main markets in which the company is focused are the United States and Canada due to the success that the products have had in these countries. The sales in the local market are not significant compared with the exports, this can be attributed mainly to three factors: 1) Lack of incentives and support from the government to promote this
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technology, 2) Low purchase power in Mexico, 3) Mexicans are not educated or informed about the benefits, acquisition and usage of small wind turbines. Regarding European markets, Potencia Industrial have contacted a few people in some European countries, but they have not found the right supplier in this market.

R&D. The company design and produce all the components from which the wind turbines are conformed. Potencia buys the raw materials to transform them into these components, which allows the company to have complete control over the quality of the products. Indeed, it has an in-house R&D department in charge of the design and development of technology, the company does not acquire technology from external sources such as universities or R&D centers. Instead, by developing, registering and patenting it, they are the sources of new technology for other companies, this area of the company is considered as the core of the business.

Sales Channel. The company does not have sales people. Instead, the sales are made through distributors. Also, direct sales to customers are made, but this is not common. There are not exclusive distributors, the exclusivity is only given if a distributor can guarantee a high volume of sales, from which the minimum amount is established by Potencia Industrial.

Marketing. The distributors are in charge of the marketing, maintenance and installation of the wind turbines, Potencia Industrial is only dedicated to production. The strategy to enter foreign markets is through distributors, which is a big challenge, because the company must find the right distributors. In order to find the distributors, the company usually attends fairs and expositions related to the industry.

The main strategy of the company is differentiation, the wind turbines are specialized rather than standardized, and they are adapted to the customers needs. Also, they have competitive prices, these prices are sometimes even lower than the competitors.

According to the interviewee, Emerging country markets are not attractive as mature markets due to the growth of the industry, which in emerging countries is slower and not remarkable.

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It is important to mention that the import and export barriers have not presented a problem for the company when doing business. There are not such barriers in this industry, which makes the trade easier.

Certifications and quality. Potencia Industrial meets the certifications and quality standards to manufacture the products, especially certifications in electronics such as IEEE, IEC and ISO-9001. This is a very important aspect to ensure the quality for the products. Furthermore, the distributors must meet U.S quality standards regarding installation of the wind turbines in order to become distributors of Potencia Industrials products. These certifications are a requirement from the manufacturer because this is how the company can guarantee a good performance of the wind turbine. The installation and service are core issues in the performance of the products, this is why it is so important to choose the best distributors.

Competitive Advantage. Quality and durability (up to 30 years with the appropriate installation)

Disadvantages. Some competitors have greater access to financial resources for investing.

Regarding the key factors to the success of this company, the interviewee mentioned as the most important: - Suitable and good quality of distributors. - Qualified companies to install the equipment. - Brochures promoting environmental awareness and informing the population about wind turbines (usage, benefits, etc.) The information presented in this chapter regards to the data collected mainly through the personal interviews conducted by the authors. It has been useful for the development of the YAK model to benchmark products, which is introduced and explained in the following chapter.

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5. Development of the YAK Model

In this chapter, the YAK model to evaluate SWT for Swedish market is presented. The model is basically a scoring system for buyers i.e. the end user, who are going to fill the basic data of a small wind turbine in order to get a score to compare the suitability of different products. Thereafter, the results from the product benchmarking are presented in the following chapter.

First, the authors specify the parameters to be considered in order to benchmark the products through the model. Thereafter, the calculation of the AEP is explained, this is based in the tool developed by the SWIIS consortium. Therefore, the adaptation of the AEP tool is adapted to the YAK model developed by the authors. Finally, the scoring system used in the model is explained as well as its application in the parameters indicated in the first part.

5.1. Parameters
Considering the requirements and concerns obtained through the interviews with experts regarding the Swedish market, there are four main issues take into take into account in the benchmarking model, i.e. pay-back time, production match, safety and after-sale.

Pay-back time The first important parameter is the Pay-back time. This refers to the time in which the wind turbine owner will recover the investment (Lilja, 2010). The formula to estimate this parameter has been created by the authors taking in consideration the variables explained in the next lines. Therefore, the estimation is calculated as follows:

Payback time = Price/ (AEP*EP)

Meaning that the price is divided by the result of the Annual Energy Production times Electricity Price when the AEP is less than the AEC. If the Annual Energy Consumption is less than the AEP, then AEP will be replaced by AEC in the formula. The previous variation in the usage of AEP or AEC is because according to the
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metering system and policy in Sweden, the wind turbine owner does not get any compensation or incentive for the surplus of electricity sent into the net. Therefore, the user has to pay for it. The Price is the final buying price of the wind turbine in units of Swedish Kronors (SEK) including tax, which also includes the installation and connection to the grid. Electricity Price refers to the last retail price including tax in SEK units. Moreover, the method to calculate the AEP is specified later.

Production match As stated in the empirical study, due to the unfavorable metering system in Sweden, the ideal energy production would be to generate just the necessary to fulfill the electricity needs in order to avoid paying the surplus of energy. Therefore, the production match refers to the extent on which the energy produced by the wind turbine meets the owners energy needs. Thus, the production match is obtained by:

Production match = AEP/AEC

Meaning that, the Annual Energy Consumption is divided by the Annual Energy Production. In fact, Annual Energy Consumption is the electricity that the user consumes every year, it is expressed in terms of kWh.

Safety This parameter refers to the extent on which the wind turbines meet the safety standards required by the Swedish market. These standards include the certification ISO9001, IEC-61400-2 and, CE mark as considerations. ISO9001 is a series of standards that certifies commercial products and processes as meeting or surpassing certain rigorous physical and chemical standards of quality. (ISO, 2010). The certification IEC-61400-2 concerns to the design requirements for small wind turbine (IEC, 2010). Finally, the CE mark is a mandatory conformity mark on many products placed on the single market in the European Economic Area. It certifies that a product meets EU consumer safety, health or environmental requirements (Zapiain, n.d)

After - sales After sales is the last factor included in the YAK model, which includes warranty year and expected life time as considerations. The expected life time influences the
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total of economic benefits for the customers, and the warranty years also influence the reliability of the quality in the products. One of the reasons that non-Swedish SWT has not been succeeded in Sweden is that the quality in terms of life time is not as good as Swedish products (Lilja). Thus, the number of warranty year and expected life time will be taken into account to get a final score in the model.

The suitability is resembled by the pay-back time, production match, safety, after sale service and thus further divided into Parameters like Price, AEP, etc.

Pay back

Price/ (AEP*EP) if AEP<AEC Price/ (AEC*EP) if AEP>AEC

Suitabilit y

Producti on match

AEC/AEP

ISO9001quality system

Safety

IEC-61400-2 CE certified Expected life-time Warranty years

After sale service

Figure 7. Parameters considered into YAK model

5.2. Calculation of AEP

SWIIS (2010) Consortium developed an Annual Energy Production tool to help users to design their own project and to overcome the lack of information from manufacturers.

The AEP tool applies the Weibull model to calculate wind speed probability, which is defined by two parameters: Annual Mean Wind Speed and, the shape factor "k". In
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most the cases in Sweden, the SWT are installed inland. According to this tool, in this case, the value of k is equal to two (k = 2). When the wind turbine is installed in a place where trade winds are dominant, the value of k is equal to four (k = 4). The wind speed range is broken down into bins of 1 m/s of width. For each wind speed bin, the Weibulls equation explained in the appendix is solved, giving as result the Weibulls wind speed probability as percentage of time, represented by f. This wind speed probability is expressed in Hours/Year of presence of wind in each bin h (SWIIS, 2010).

The wind turbine power versus wind speed can be obtained by reading and interpreting the power curve of a wind turbine.

The cross product Energy bin/kWh is the turbine energy output produced by the wind speeds contained in that specific bin, it is expressed as bin/kWh. The sum of the energy generated in every specific wind speed is the energy output of the turbine on a yearly basis. In this case, the altitude factor has not been taken into account, and then the sum only shows the Annual Energy Production at 0 meter altitude in perfect wind condition (SWIIS, 2010)

Moreover, According to the SWIIS (2010), there are several factors that determine the performance of a SWT, from which the following can be distinguished:

1. Higher site altitude results in lesser density of the air. As far as wind power is directly proportional to air density, altitude means energy reduction. The air density factor is an exponential adjustment to the real variation of air density against height above sea level, the equation is calculated with the following formula:

- (1.225-1.225*EXP(-0.0001*Site Altitude))

2. Vertical Wind Shear Exponent is best assumed as "1/7" or 0.143. For rough terrain or high turbulence it is used 0.18. For very smooth terrain or open water use 0.110.

3. Anemometer Height above ground level is for the data used for AMWS. In this
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thesis, the Uppsala MIUU model is used to record wind speed at 49 meters. Buyers are advised to use the same wind map.

4. Tower Height is self-explanatory, in general higher tower means better wind reception.

5. Turbulence Factor is a de-rating coefficient for site turbulence, product variability, and other performance influencing factors. It is used from 10% to 15% in most of the cases. Setting this factor to 0% will over-predict performance for most situations.

In conclusion, SWIIS AEP tool is a way to calculate taking account of tower height, air density influenced by altitude, annual average wind speed as well as it is unstable factor, turbulence factor etc. The authors consider it is a more accurate way to evaluate the production of a small wind turbine.

5.3. Adaption to calculation of AEP in YAK model

Since users usually does not understand of Vertical Wind Shear Exponent and Turbulence Factor, two calculations are going to be used to give AEP range - from the optimistic (Vertical Wind Shear Exponent=0.11 and Turbulence Factor=10%) to the pessimistic (Vertical Wind Shear Exponent=0.18 and Turbulence Factor=15%) (SWIIS, 2010). This is illustrated with the following example:

AMWS: 7m/s at 49 meters high Site Altitude: 10 meters Wind Shear: 0.11 Turbulence Factor: 10% Tower Height: 21 meters SWT: Hannevind 5.5kW

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Speed(m/s) 0 1 2 3 4 30

bins Limits 0=>1 1=>2 2=>3 3=>4 4=>5 30=>31 Center 0.5 1.5 2.5 3.5 4.5 30.5

Probability hours/year f 1.94% 5.59% 8.62% 10.74% 11.82% 0% h 170 490 755 941 1035 0

Power kW 0 0 0 0.19 0.47 0 AEP in perfect wind

Energy kWh/bin 0 0 0 180.34 490.2 0

Total

100.8%

8767

18,271.17kWh

Table 1. Adaption to calculation of AEP in YAK model In table 1, the AEP obtained is the result with perfect wind conditions. However, two additional factors should be considered in reality: Air density factor and turbulence factor. Therefore: AEP in perfect wind*(1+Air Density Factor)*(1-Turbulence Factor) = 18271.17*(1+0%)*(1-10%) = 16424 kWh

5.4. Scoring System

The scoring system of the YAK model is aiming to get a final score to clearly compare the product based on the specific situation of each user. All the calculations have been done automatically by excel software. The logic behind the calculation will be explicated as follow.

According to Spendolini (1992) the best cases are used as standards. In this case, the score assigned to the best practice is 100 points. If the benchmarked product shows a better performance in general than the considered as best practice, the score would be higher than 100 and therefore, if it is lower than 100, it is considered that it has a lower performance in general terms than the best practice product.

The calculation of the score is mainly divided in four parts which were already explained i.e. production match, pay-back time, safety, after sale service. Each of
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them account for the same weight out of the total score. Therefore, each issue accounts for 25 points in order to make a total of 100 points.

5.4.1. Calculation of the four factors Payback period As mentioned, the standard score for this part is 25, meaning that if the benchmarked product has the same pay-back time as the best practice case in its category, it gets 25 points. Hence, a product gets less than 25 points if its life-time period is shorter than the best case standard and therefore, it gets more than 25 points if its life-time is longer.

The way to calculate the score is divided into four steps: Firstly, compare the AEP and AEC, and take the lower number as data A. Secondly, calculate Price/(data A*EP) of the benchmarked product , this operation gives as result the data B. Thirdly, calculate Price/ (AEP*EP) of the standard wind turbine in order to obtain data C. Lastly, divide B by C to get as result the payback ratio, which is used as data D. Therefore, the result used as data D substitutes the variable x into the linear equation y=25(2-x) giving as result the final score of this section.

Figure 8 illustrates the relationship between payback ratio and the score of the benchmarked product.

Target product: If AEP<AEC, A=AEP If AEC<AEP, A=AEC

B: Price/ (A*EP) of benchmarked product C: Price/ (AEP*EP) of Standard product

D=B/C

Score=25(2-D)

Figure 8. Calculation of the four factors

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Pay Back
60 50 40 Score 30 20 10 0 0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5

pay back ratio

Figure 9. Pay back ratio graph

Production match As mentioned previously, the production match represented by AEP/AEC concerns to the level on which the production meets the customers needs. It is located in a segmented function consisting of two linear equations and one constant function. As stated before, the ideal situation is when AEP is equal to AEC. Considering the factor error and energy production fluctuation in the reality, the authors assume that if the result of AEP divided by AEC is between 1 and 1.5, the SWT gets the full score of 25 for this part. If the result of AEP divided by AEC is lower than 1, this result must be considered as x and is allocated into a linear equation of Y=25x, and then the result of Y is the score of the product for this part. Finally, if the number is higher than 1.5, it is considered as x, then the result is obtained through Y=-16.67x+50.

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Production Match
30 25 20 score 15 10 5 0 0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 3 3,5

Production Match ratio

Figure 10. Production match graph

Figure 10 illustrates the production match curve generated by YAK model after the previous calculations has been performed.

Safety Three different elements are considered as an important part of the safety: CE certification, ISO9001 quality system, IEC-61400-2. Also, there are four different scenarios where the products can be situated depending on its number of certifications. Indeed, if the benchmarked product has none of them, the score obtained is 0. If it has only one of them, it gets 12.5 points. If it accounts for two certifications, it obtains 25 points, which is the same as the standard turbine. If the three elements are fulfilled, it is awarded with 50 points.

After sales The evaluation of the after-sale service relies in two elements: expected life-time, and years of warranty. They are calculated separately using the same procedure, and the total score is obtained with the sum of both parameters. Similar as the calculation of pay-back period, firstly the ratio is calculated as benchmarked product life time or warranty years divided by the contrasting part of the standard wind turbine. In the formula, each of ratio is put as x into a linear equation Y=25x separately and gets the

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Y as score. If it the time is the same as the standard, it will get 12.5 points. If it is shorter, the score will be lower and vice versa (Figure 11)

A1: expect life time of target product B1: expect life time of Standard product A2: warranty years of target product B2: warranty years of Standard product Warranty ratio: C2=A2/B2 Life time ratio: C1=A1/B1

Life time Score: D1=25C1 After Sale Score: D= D1 + D2 Warranty year Score: D2=25C2

Figure 11. After sales calculation procedure

life time/warranty years

30 25 20 Score 15 10 5 0 0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5 life time/warranty ratio

Figure 12. Life time / warranty years graph Total score A weighting system is used in for the finally score in order to fulfill customers specific preference. The customer has the option to give a score from 1 to 5 according to the importance of each factor. E.g. Assuming that the score for each factor is respectively A, B, C, D and the importance for them corresponds to A1, B1,C1,D1, then the finally score is calculated by

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E=4(A*A1+B*B1+C*C1+D*D1)/(A1+B1+C1+D1). The total score for the standard wind turbine is 100, which means that if the target product has the same performance according to the considerations in the YAK model it will get a score of 100. In fact, if the score obtained by the benchmarked SWT is lower, it is implied that is has a lower performance than the standard. Likewise, if the benchmarked SWT obtains a score higher than 100, then it is inferred that is has a better performance than the standard.

In the following analysis, all the factors are assumed as the same weight, so the total score is simplified by the sum of each part. After testing more than 10 wind turbines through the model, it is assumed that wind turbines with a score higher than 80 are recommended for users and they should be considered to purchase.

Results from YAK model

After introducing the required basic information about products and the user situations, four different kinds of information are offered. First, the total score is automatically showed, so the customers gets a general result of which product is more suitable when they compare different turbines. Secondly, the estimated AEP is provided, so the customer is able know how much electricity approximately will be produced per year from the wind turbine according to their own situation. Thirdly, the Average Electricity Cost i.e. the Average price of electricity produced by SWT, is also displayed for customers to consider as an indicator of performance in the product. Lastly, a specific score is displayed for each factor, so the users are able to evaluate in which part the products are losing or earning points. Thus, they can make the decision according to their specific concerns and preferred focus. As mentioned previously, by using the model explained in this chapter, the products benchmark is conducted through the next chapter in order to analyze the suitability of each suppliers product for the Swedish market.

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6. ANALYSIS
A scenario based on the best practices of SWT cases in Sweden is applied in this chapter. The specific conditions are based on suppositions. Using these assumptions as a base, the wind turbine installed in the practice as well as 3 other wind turbines from Chinese and Mexican manufacturers are examined through the YAK model presented in the previous chapter.

6.1. Analysis of the best practice: JBA vind AB ,22 kW SWT

According to the template from Rural Res mini-wind best practices, in 2008 a 22kW wind turbine was installed on a 24 m steel tower in Ekhamra, Mottala, Sweden. The site is located in the countryside with plain surroundings in an open area, and located quite close to the 2nd biggest lake in Sweden, Vttern. The wind map from Uppsala University (MIUU-model) indicates a yearly wind speed average of 6,0 m/s at 49 m in this site.

The Wind turbine is connected to the electricity meter and the majority of the production is used in the owners farm, reducing the need to buy power from the grid. The electricity production fits the consumption needs, which is 31,000 kWh per year. According to the database from Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, the altitude is 90 meters in the specific site. To summarize the information from the best practice above, the scenario situation setting and input information are shown in the table 2 and table 3.

Scenario situation settings AEC (Annual Energy Consumption) EP (Electricity price per kWh incl tax) AMWS (Annual Mean Wind Speed) SA (Site Altitude) 31,000kWh 0.87 Kr/kWh 6 m/s 90m Table 2.Scenario situation settings best practice
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Input information of JBA vind AB ,22 kW SWT Manufacturer Capacity End-user price incl tax Tower Height ISO9001 IEC-61400-2 CE Warranty Life time JBA vind 22kW 400,000 24 n n y 2 20 Table 3. Input information for JBA vind, 22 kW SWT 6.1.1. Wind turbine suitability examination and analysis by YAK model After introducing the previous information as well as the data from the power curve of the best practice wind turbine, a setting of scores are calculated automatically.

Score of JBA vind AB ,22 kW SWT Overall Production match(AEP/AEC) Safety After-sale Pay-back Table 4. Score of JBA vind AB, 22 kW SWT 88 25 13 21 29

In this case (table 4), the best practice gets an overall score of 87 compared to the standard 100, meaning that it is a suitable wind turbine. By analyzing each segment of the table, it is observed that this SWT obtained a high score in the Pay-back and Production match. Therefore, this wind turbine has a good performance from economic point of view. Despite, it lost several points in the safety factor. This is

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because the product only has one out of three examined certifications. It also lost points in the After-sale service because of the short warranty time. Then, the customer is able to reconsider the Overall score according to their own opinion according to the importance of each factor. For example, if the customer knows the manufacturer and trust in its quality, they might not concern about the certification, instead they will concern about the payback time period. Then, the written score is actually underestimated according the customers own situation.

Added to the score, a set of estimation results including the range of are also showed in table 5.

Estimation results of JBA vind AB ,22 kW SWT Estimated AEP - Highest Estimated AEP - Lowest Pay-back year % of electricty generated by SWT Average production cost - Lowest Average production cost - Highest Table 5. Estimation Results of JBA vind AB, 22 kW SWT 33257.73 28186.09 12 107% 0.60 0.71

As illustrated, the AEP varies from 28186.09kWh to 33257.73kWh, and in the real case it was 31000kWh. The Average Production Cost is 0.65 in the real case, which is showed between 0.60 Kr/ kW to 0.71kr/ kW according to the table.

6.2. Benchmark of Chinese and Mexican wind turbines

In this part, four wind turbines from China and Mexico are examined through the model and their analysis is carried out furtherer. Firstly, the individual analysis is made, which means that each wind turbine is analyzed separately. After that, the comparison is made in order to show the strength and weakness of each wind turbine.

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6.2.1. Individual wind turbine analysis First, a background of the wind turbine and its manufacturer is available to establish the reasons of why they have been chosen for this analysis. The target wind turbines have been chosen from the leading manufactures within China, Mexico and Sweden. Furthermore the wind turbine must have the similar capacity as the best practice turbine, which is a 22 kW turbine.

Moreover, the pay-back period is analyzed in detail to examine the economic benefits. Secondly, the score is showed and analyzed to determine if they have potential to fulfill the needs of customer who installed the best practice turbine.

6.2.1.1. Skywing-20kW wind turbine

Skywing is a branch brand of a Chinese Wind turbine manufacturer named Yangzhou Shenzhou Wind-driven Generator Co., Ltd. This is the No.1 manufacturer in China in terms of Annual production value, EBITA, Annual production, Installed capacity Export volume, Export Capcity or Export Revenue (Dou, Charlie et. Al, 2010). As stated in empirical study, Chinese manufactures are more focused in off-grid wind turbines. Despite, Skywind is a brand focused on on-grid wind turbines which fulfill the needs from developed markets.

Score of Skywing-20Kw SWT Overall Production match(AEP/AEC) Safety After-sale Pay-back Table 6. Score of Skywing-20Kw SWT 93 25 25 18 25

The total score accounts for 93 points (Table 6), which is even higher than the JBA vind AB ,22 kW SWT. This shows the high suitability of skywing-20kW SWT for the customer in the case. By examining the production match part, Skywing-20kW SWT get the same score as standard 25, which means that its capacity suits the needs of the

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customer, i.e. the Estimated Annual Electricity Production is between 1 to 1.5 times Annual Consumption of the Customer.

Skywind also got 25 points in safety because it has both ISO9001 and CE mark, which can prove its reliability and quality at some extent.

In after-sale, this wind turbine got 18 points compared to 25 from the standard and 21 from the best practice, meaning that it has a lower performance in terms of warranty years or life expected life time. Taking into account the input information, it is noticed that it only have 2 years of warranty, which is the same as the best practice but lower than the standard, which is of 3 years. Also, Skywind only have 15 years of expected life time. That is, 5 years shorter than both the best practice and the standard.

In pay-back category, Skywing-20Kw SWT obtained 25 points, which is same as standard and 4 points less than the best practice wind turbine in this case (Table 7).

Estimation results of Skywing-20Kw SWT Pay-back year % of electricity generated by SWT Estimated AEP Highest Estimated AEP Lowest Average production cost Lowest Average production cost Highest Table 7. Estimation Results of Skywing-20Kw SWT 14 143% 44465.88 37067.91 0.73 0.87

The estimated Pay-back year is around 14 years (table7), which is same as the standard. This number is affected by the price and Electricity Production utilized.

The used Electricity could be affected by the Production generated by wind turbine and the total consumption that the customer needs. From the table 7, it can be observed that the AEP/AEC is 143% (the highest estimation of AEP is used in this calculation). This means that in the ideal condition, 43% of the total production will

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not bring any economic benefit due to the present metering policy in Sweden. From the analysis in this part, the customer can notice that this wind turbine has higher production ability than the needed, and if the customer has a plan to expand the needs, or the metering policy change favorably, the payback time would be even shorter. Based on the estimated results, the Average Electricity Cost, i.e. the average electricity price generated by the SWT, is from 0.73kr/kW to 0.87kr/kW, which is still lower than the present electricity price of 1.02. In this sense, from economic point of view, this wind turbine can generate economic benefits for the owner.

6.2.1.2. Huaying-20kW and Huaying-25kW wind turbine

Huaying Wind Power Generator Co.,Ltd is a Member of Tongkun Group-Chinas leading indtustrial Conglomerate. Huaying claims to be the only manufacturer using the variable blade pitch technology in China. Also, it is the top 5 manufacturers in terms of Annual production Value in China (Dou, Charlie et. Al, 2010). There are two wind turbines from Huaying with the comparable capacity to 22Kwi.e. 20kW and 25 Kw, both are examined through the YAK model.

Score of Huaying SWT Overall Production match(AEP/AEC) Safety After-sale service Pay-back Table 8. Score of Huaying SWT

20 kW 62 -3 25 18 22

25kW 89 25 25 18 21

Table 8 demonstrates that the 20kW obtained a low overall score of 62 points, which is hardly suitable for the customer. By analyzing the four issues, it has been found that the main reason relies in the production match, which accounts for -3 points. This means that it is not the right capacity to meet the consumption needs of the customer. Specifically the AEP, it is too low that cannot fulfill the consumption in this case. Thus this wind turbine is not analyzed furtherer.

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Huaying 25kW SWT got an overall score of 89 (table 8), representing the possibility to be a suitable wind turbine. Contrary to the 20kW wind turbine, the 25kW wind turbine from Huaying fits the needs of customer consumption and gets 25 points in production match. Huaying has both CE mark and ISO9001, which leads to a good score of 25 points in safety. In the after sale part, this wind turbine got 18 points, which is calculated from the 2 years warranty and 15 years expected life time. The payback factor is analyzed in detail by the extra results presented below (table 9)

Estimation results of Huaying 25kW SWT Pay-back year % of electricity generated by SWT Estimated AEP - Highest Estimated AEP - Lowest Average production cost - Lowest Average production cost - Highest 16 103% 31787.49 23844.40 1.27 1.69

Table 9. Estimation results of Huaying 25kW SWT

Concerning the pay-back factor, Huaying 25kW got 21 points (table 9), which is low compared to the standard and best practice (29 points). This is either because of its high price or the low performance. Regarding the percentage of production generated by wind turbine, the 103% shows that only 3% is not utilized in the ideal wind conditions. From the Estimated AEP and APC, it is clear that this wind turbine has relatively low energy production and high production cost, meaning that the performance of this wind turbine is not good. Furthermore, the lowest average production cost range, i.e.1.27kr/kW, is higher than the present electricity price, i.e. 1.02kr/kW. In conclusion, the performance of this wind turbine can hardly generate economic benefits for the owner.

6.2.1.3. Potencia Industrial -10Kw Hummingbird wind turbine

Potencia Industrial is the only small wind turbine manufacturer in Mexico according to the investigation. This is a manufacturer has more than 30 years history of wind turbine production and has exported their product over 100 countries. As they only
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offer wind turbines up to 10 kW, it is assumed that the customer could buy two 10kW wind turbine to fulfill the total consumption. Therefore, the authors assume that the AEC for this turbine is half of 31,000kWh, i.e. 15,500 kWh as input information.

Score of Potencia10Kw SWT Overall Production match(AEP/AEC) Safety After-sale service Pay-back Table 10. Score of Potencia 10kW SWT 95 25 13 36 21

The overall score of Hummingbird 10Kw SWT is 95 (Table 10), which means that it is a suitable wind turbine.

It obtained 25 points in production match, which means that the Annual production meets half of the total consumption needs. In the safety part, this wind turbine only got 13 because the only proved certification the manufacture has is ISO90001. However, considering the history and reputation of this manufacturer, this score can be seen as an underestimated score by customers. The product obtains very high score in After-sales service part which is 36 compared to the standard and the best practice Swedish wind turbine, which got 21 points. Also, they have longer warranty year -5 years- and expected life time -25 years-. This wind turbine gets 21 points in Pay back, which will be examined in detail in table 11.

Estimation results of Potencia 10kW SWT Pay-back year % of electricity generated by SWT Estimated AEP Highest Estimated AEP Lowest 16 148% 31787.49 23844.40

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Average production cost Lowest Average production cost Highest

0.51 0.63

Table 11. Estimation results of Potencia 10kW SWT

Potencias 10kW SWT payback time is 16 years (Figure 11), which is 2 years longer than the standard. The reason of having a longer payback period is mainly due to the extra production that could not be compensated, which is 48% (figure 11). From the average production cost from Potencia is 0.63 at the highest estimation, which is much lower than the electricity price bought from net. Thus, it is considered excellent performance.

6.2.2. Product comparison and analysis In this part, a matrix result is introduced to analyze the final results for the scores and extra first and then, the products analyzed in the previous part are integrated in this matrix to compare each other and get the final comments.

6.2.2.1. Analysis of Product Appraisal

The results are divided into two parts from the YAK model. The first part is the score, which is generalized by the overall score to describe the suitability for the customer. The second part of the results shows the performance of the wind turbine from the economic point of view, which could be mostly compared by using the Average Production Cost. Therefore, the product appraisal Matrix is developed using the overall score and the highest estimated Average production cost in order to conclude with the final comments concerning the products.

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Product Apprasial Matrix high part 1 : inconsiderable APC part3: back- up choice

lo

part 2: potential suitable choice

part 4: best choice high

low

Overall score

Figure 13. Product appraisal Matrix

As illustrated in figure 1,3 the overall score is evaluated in the horizontal layout, which shows the suitability from low in the left side to high in the right side. The highest estimated Average Production Cost is showed in the axis layout from low in the bottom to high in the top. The higher the average production cost, the lower the performance of a SWT in gaining economic benefits.

The products categorized in the first part (inconsiderable), have a high Average Production Cost and low suitability, which clearly should not be considered to purchase.

The products categorized in the second part (potential suitable choice) have a low Average Production Cost and low suitability. Hence, they are considered by the authors as good products. Wind turbines with low Average Production cost have superior performance in gaining economic benefits, which means that it should have relatively higher overall score. If a product has good performance while gets a low overall score, its capacity probably does not fit the customer needs or some certification issues. Thus, the customer could reexamine the product and its manufacturer to either adjust the product or find another product with right capacity.

The third part shows a high average production cost and high suitability. The products are categorized as back-up choice. This category is characterized by low production
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performance, although probably gets a good score in terms of safety and production match, they are not recommended.

The products categorized within the part 4 are considered as the best choice since they are distinguished for having high production performance and high suitability to the specific customer.

6.2.2.2. Product comparison

The table below shows how those products amplified before located in appraisal matrix.

1,60

1,40
1,20 1,00 Average Production 0,80 Cost 0,60 0,40 0,20 0,00 0 50 100 Overall score 150 Potencia 10kW*2 Skywing 20kW HuaYing 20kW HuaYing 25kW JBA vind 22kW

Figure 14. Product comparison Matrix

From figure 14, it can be observed that Huaying 20kW should not considered for purchasing. Meanwhile, Huaying 25 is be a back-up choice but not recommended because of its low production performance, and the rest three products are all located in the best choice category. More specifically, Potencias 10kW*2 wind turbine is the best choice both from the suitability and economic benefits point of view.

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7. CONCLUSION
In the conclusion, which is also the last part, the research questions are answered according to the analysis of the results of model and based on the information from empirical studies. Also, the answer for sub research question will also be explicated.

Firstly, the key requirements for Swedish markets are summarized in four main factors: pay-back, production match, after sale and, safety. Which have been applied in the YAK model in order to benchmark each SWT, conduct the analysis, and finally, provide with a conclusion for each product. Secondly, the features of SWTs examined through the model will further clarified in the latter part. Thirdly, the corresponding reason for Mexico and PRC manufactures have not succeeded in Sweden is explored.

Lastly, the main research question of how Chinese and Mexican SWT manufacturers can meet the demands in Sweden is answered.

Features of Chinese, Mexican and Swedish SWT? The results from YAK model for SWTs are showed below

JBA vind Capacities Score Pay-back Production match(AEP/AEC) Safety After-sale service Overall Average Production Cost-highest estimation(kr/kWh) 22kW 29 25 13 21 88 0.60

Skywing HuaYing HuaYing Potencia 20kW 25 25 25 18 93 0.73 20kW 22 -3 25 17 62 1.21 25kW 21 25 25 17 88 1.27 10kW 21 25 13 36 95 0.51

Table 12, wind turbine results comparison

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Swedish SWT As introduced before, JBAvind-22kW has good performance in terms of Average Production Cost as well as the suitability score. Thus, this wind turbine is highly recommended according to the YAK model since it has been exemplified as the best practice of SWTs in Sweden.

Chinese SWT Huaying 20kW

Basic on the analysis stated before Huaying 20Kw SWT has a lower performance in gaining economic benefits, which shows it does not have a high-performance. Furthermore, it gets a low overall score, which means that it did not fulfill the specific requirements from the customer.

Huaying 25kW

Same as Huayings 20kW, this wind turbine did not performed well in Average Production Cost. However, it gets a higher overall score, which means it has higher suitability for the customers.

Skywing 20kW

The turbine from leading Chinese SWT manufacture Skywing gets a relatively ideal overall score as well as the Average Production Cost. Until 2010, they do not have significant sales in Swedish market. According to the interview with Ms. Michelle Zhang (2010), the reason was that they do not have long term distributor cooperation. The work of installation, knowledge transfer, marketing, resources, language ability are the main barriers to entre the Swedish market.

Mexican SWT As analysis stated before, the small wind turbines from Potencia Industrial are

recommended as the most suitable wind turbine with highest production performance,
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however, it has not been sold in Sweden. The only problem to fulfill the target customer is that the SWTs over 10 kW of capacity are still under development. Therefore, they only produce it when a customer requires it, then they do not have specifications available for this capacity yet.

Potencias SWT has highest overall score and lowest average production cost. One important issue is that the highest SWT capacity is 10kW, which can barely produce half of Annual Energy Consumption, In fact, customers need to buy 2 units and operate simultaneously.

What are the reasons of Chinese and Mexican manufacturers have not succeeded in Sweden? From the visits to the companies, one issue has been founded in Swedish SWT industry. This is that the distributors play a crucial role in this industry while it is not easy to find suitable distributors in Sweden. The whole purchase process from the building permission to a producing wind turbine it can take 1 to 12 months (ke). Moreover, there are a lot of manual work and communication that needs to be done ideally by local people. Therefore, finding a suitable distributor has been a main problem for companies from China and Mexico to enter the Swedish Market.

Even though some SWTs got lower scores in certain factors compared to the standard, the Mexican and Chinese products obtained an acceptable overall score, being suitable for the Swedish market. Therefore, as shown in the analysis chapter, the quality and performance of the products is not an impediment for these manufacturers to enter the market. Then, the authors conclude that the products themselves are not a problem. Instead, the lack of a suitable and effective distributor in the Swedish market is the main reason of why these manufacturers have not been successful in Sweden. In fact, in some cases they have not penetrated this European country at all.

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8. Bibliography
8.1. Books
Betz, A. (1966) Introduction to the Theory of Flow Machines. (D. G. Randall, Trans.) Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Birn, Robin (2004). Effective Use of Market Research : How to Drive and Focus Better Business Decisions

Dou, Charlie et. al (2010), Strategy research on P.R. China small wind turbine industry, Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (name in Chinese: )

Jossey Bass. Kinnear, T.C. and Taylor, J.R. (1991) Marketing Research, An Applied Approach, 1st edition, New York: McGraw-Hill Companies. MacKay, David JC (2009). Without the hot air Sustainable Energy

Merriam, S.B. (1998) Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education.

Patterson, James G. (1995), Benchmarking Basics: Course Technology Crisp

Price, Trevor J. (2005), James Blyth: Britain's first modern wind power pioneer, Wind Engineering, 29/3 (2005), 191200 Pride, William M., Hughes, Robert J. and Kapoor, Jack R. (2008). Business 10 th. edition

Spendoloini, Michael J. (1992), The Benchmarking Book: Amacom

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Yin, Robert K. (2003), Case study research, 3rd edition, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications

8.2. Association Material

EWEA European Statistics: http://www.ewea.org/fileadmin/ewea_documents/documents/statistics/100401_Gener al_Stats_2009.pdf AWEA (2009), AWEA Small Wind Turbine Global Market Study Year Ending 2008 BWEA (2009), Annual Report 2009 EWEA (2009), Annual Report 2009 WWEA (2009), Annual Report 2009 LAWEA (n.d)

8.3. Interviews
Johnny Lilja, Project Manager, Energy Agency for Southeast Sweden, Sweden, May 2010 Jorge M. Huacuz Villamar, Non-conventional energy sources Manager, Institute of Electric Investigations, Mexico, March 2010 Jorge Landa, Director, Mexican Association of Wind Energy, Mexico, March 2010 Pablo Gottfried, Project Manager, Potencia Industrial, Mexico, March 2010 Sven ke, Owner, Hannevind AB, Sweden, May 2010 Zhi Wang, Coordinator of Business Development Wind power and Partnership Development, The Regional Council in Kalmar County, Sweden, April 2010 Various SWT manufacturers executives, Husum Germany, March 2010 Various SWT manufacturers executives, Shanghai P.R. China, May 2010
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8.4. Internet sources

Dodge, Darrell M., Illustrated History of Wind Power Development http://www.telosnet.com/wind/early.html SWIIS (2010) Small Wind Turbines Wind Resource Assessment - Some Basic Issues Vesterberg, Jonas (27-04-2010). Sweden plans tenfold wind energy increase: Swedish Wire Economy BBC (10-01-2010). China overtakes Germany as world's largest exporter. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/8450434.stm ISO (2010), http://www.iso.org/ IEC (2010), http://webstore.iec.ch/preview/info_iec61400-2%7Bed2.0%7Den_d.pdf

8.5. Articles
Dubois, A. and Gadde, L.E. (2002) Systematic Combining: An Abductive Approach to Case Research. Journal of Business Research, 55: pp.553-560.

Villareal, Angeles M. (2010). U.S.-Mexico Economic Relations: Trends, Issues, and Implications. Congressional Research Service

Zapiain, Gerard N. (n.d). Your Key To Enter European Market. U.S Department Of Commerce

8.6. Other sources

Maegaard, Preben (2010), Presentation in New Energy Husum 2010, Small-scaled Wind Energy in the Nordic Countries: Experiences and Future Prospects

Office of Industries Publication ITS-02 (2009). Wind Turbines: Industry and Trade Summary. United States International Trade Commission.

Bergstrm, Hans (2007). Wind Resource Mapping Of Sweden Using The Miuu-Model

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9. Appendix
APPENDIX I. Wind is an air mass moving from a high-pressure area to low pressure. Furthermore, the energy in the wind can be calculated by considering a segment of air shaped like a horizontal cylinder. The mass per unit time for a slice of the cylinder is calculated with the following formula (MacKay, 2009): M = AV Where: M = mass = air density A = area V = wind speed The main function of a wind turbine is to transform the winds kinetic energy into electrical energy. The calculation to obtain the kinetic energy Ek is (MacKay, 2009): Ek = mv2 Moreover, by substituting the mass of the air cylinder (AV = M), it is obtained the next formula: Ek = Av3

In the case of the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT), the swept area equals to r2, where r is the rotor radius, therefore (MacKay, 2009): Ek = r2v3

The previous equation implies that if a rotor radius doubles, wind power increases 4 times, if wind speed doubles, then wind power is increased by 8 times. This equation shows the level of the kinetic energy inside the wind. However, any wind turbine is 100% efficient. In fact, a 100% efficient wind turbine could transform all kinetic
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energy into electric energy, so the wind speed behind the blades would be zero, which is not possible. A German physicist Albert Betz, developed the Betz law in 1919 (Betz, 1966), he suggests that the maximum power possible to be extracted from a wind turbine situated in a free stream can be calculated as following: Ekmax = 16/27 ( Av3) The law explains that any wind turbine can capture more than 59.3% of the kinetic energy contained into the wind, this is expressed by 16/27.

Wind speed classes distribution

Depending on the wind speed and wind turbine type, the electricity production varies with the wind speed distribution around the mean value, g.e. on a site where the wind speed is 12 m/s half of the time, and the other half of the time the speed is 0 m/s, a wind turbine would produce much more electricity than on a site where the wind speed is 100% of the time at 6 m/s. According to Betz's law, wind energy in theory is proportional to the cube of wind speed. (SWIIS, 2010).

Weibull Model of wind speed distribution

According to the SWIIS (2010), the Weibull model refers to a mathematic calculation that considers the characteristics of a typical wind potential, giving as a result the wind distribution for all classes of wind by using only two parameters. The function that gives the wind speed distribution is called Weibull probability function. It gives the probability p to get a wind speed, which is represented by v, therefore: p(v) = (k/A)*(V/A)k-1 *exp(-(V/A)k) where: k: Weibull shape parameter A: Weibull scale parameter

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Wind speed probability is calculated as a Weibulls curve defined by two parameters: the Annual Mean Wind Speed and, the shape factor k. Furthermore, this theory is the base of the AEP calculation tool, which is developed in the empirical study (SWIIS, 2010)

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