An Analysis of Renewable Energy Usage by Mobile Data Network Operators

Sheraz, Syed Muhammad; Arfeen, Asad; Uddin, Riaz; Haider, Umaima

doi:10.3390/su13041886

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

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“…Recently, the integration of renewable energy sources has become crucial and indispensable in the design and implementation of future wireless networks and systems [6]. Most cellular network operators aim at increasing energy independence by efficiently utilizing the temporally varying renewable energy-coupled with energy storage solutions-to ensure sustainability and cleaner energy [7]. One of the key technologies that could help towards this aim is the application of renewable-energy-powered base stations (REPBSs), which primarily rely on locally harvested and stored energy while also utilizing renewable solutions, such as photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and wind turbines.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar-Powered Cellular Base Stations in Kuwait: A Case Study

et al. 2021

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With the rapidly evolving mobile technologies, the number of cellular base stations (BSs) has significantly increased to meet the explosive demand for mobile services and applications. In turn, this has significantly increased the capital and operational expenses, due to the increased electricity prices and energy consumption. To generate electricity, power plants mainly rely on fossil fuels, which are non-renewable energy resources. As a result, CO2 emissions also increase, which adversely affect health and environment. For wireless access technologies and cellular networks, BSs are the largest power consumer, and the network energy consumption is mainly dominated by the network infrastructure, which makes the telecommunications sector liable for energy consumption as well as CO2 emissions around the globe. Alternatively, solar energy is considered as an eco-friendly and economically attractive solution, due to its cost-effectiveness and sustainability. In this paper, the potentials of photovoltaic (PV) solar power to energize cellular BSs in Kuwait are studied, with the focus on the design, implementation, and analysis of off-grid solar PV systems. Specifically, system components, such as the number of PV panels, batteries, and converters needed for the design are determined and evaluated via HOMER software, with the focus on minimizing the net present cost (NPC). A comparison between various PV, diesel generator (DG), and battery bank (BB) system configurations is also performed. Moreover, a comparison of system deployment area will be presented for different PV panels that have different output power and panel sizes, in addition to utilizing a solar tracking system. It is revealed that utilizing a hybrid system configuration (i.e., PV-DG-BB) decreases fuel consumption per year by almost 95% in comparison to the conventional DG-only based electric systems. Not only that, but utilizing a pure off-grid solar PV system (i.e., PV-BB) can significantly reduce the total NPC while completely eliminating CO2 emissions; however, at the expense of more land.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar-Powered Cellular Base Stations in Kuwait: A Case Study

et al. 2021

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Data and Modelling for the Territorial Impact Assessment (TIA) of Policies

Medeiros

2023

Handbook of Computational Social Science for Policy

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Territorial Impact Assessment (TIA) is still a ‘new kid on the block’ on the panorama of policy evaluation methodologies. In synthesis, TIA methodologies are thematically holistic and multi-dimensional and require the analysis of a wide pool of data, not only of economic character but also related with social, environmental, governance and planning processes, in all territorial scales. For that, TIA requires a wealth of comparable and updated territorialised data. Here, data availability is often scarce in many of the selected analytic dimensions and respective components, to assess territorial impacts in a given territory, in particular in the domains of governance, planning and environment. In this context, this chapter presents a list of non-traditional potential indicators which can be used in existing TIA methodologies. Moreover, the analysis was able to show how important can be the use of non-traditional data, to complement mainstream statistical indicators associated with socioeconomic development trends. However, for the interested scientist, the dispersal of existing non-traditional data per a multitude of sources can pose a huge challenge. Hence the need of an online platform which centralises and updates non-traditional data for the use of all interested in implementing TIA methodologies.

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