Benchmarking Small Wind Turbines for the Swedish Market : A case study of Chinese, Mexican and Swedish Manufacturers

Sammanfattning: 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 product‟s 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 product‟s 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.