Assessment of Renewable Energy Technology and a Case of Sustainable Energy in Mobile Telecommunication Sector

Abstract

The rapid growth of the mobile telecommunication sectors of many emerging countries creates a number of problems such as network congestion and poor service delivery for network operators. This results primarily from the lack of a reliable and cost-effective power solution within such regions. This study presents a comprehensive review of the underlying principles of the renewable energy technology (RET) with the objective of ensuring a reliable and cost-effective energy solution for a sustainable development in the emerging world. The grid-connected hybrid renewable energy system incorporating a power conversion and battery storage unit has been proposed based on the availability, dynamism, and technoeconomic viability of energy resources within the region. The proposed system's performance validation applied a simulation model developed in MATLAB, using a practical load data for different locations with varying climatic conditions in Nigeria. Results indicate that, apart from being environmentally friendly, the increase in the overall energy throughput of about 4 kWh/$ of the proposed system would not only improve the quality of mobile services, by making the operations of GSM base stations more reliable and cost effective, but also better the living standards of the host communities.

Evaluation of various global solar radiation models for Nigeria

“…These vary in most parts of the country. For example, the climatic condition is arid in the north, tropical at the centre and equatorial in the south (Okundamiya, Emagbetere and Ogujor 2014).…”

Economic Evaluation of Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems for Electricity Generation in Nigeria: A Discounted Cash Flow Analysis

“…Solar PV and wind energy sources when combined as a hybrid system are capable of supplying electricity to a building thereby reducing the load on the national grid [10]. Incorporating power conversion and storage units into a hybrid wind-solar energy system is a good combination for supplying electricity to the national grid [11].…”

“…Some authors have conducted studies to evaluate the techno-economic viability of HRES using other methods. The study conducted by Okundamiya et al [11] adopted the genetic algorithm-based technique for optimal sizing of hybrid renewable energy system component of solar-wind in order to effectively meet the load demand of telecommunication networks. The study suggested a grid-connected hybrid system comprising of PV-wind technologies.…”

Sustainable Power Supply Solutions for Off-Grid Base Stations

“…For instance, Okundamiya et al [127] proposed an optimum model of control strategies for a hybrid PV-wind system. The key idea of the strategy was to ensure that the energy generation must be leveled between the energy resource and the energy distribution in order to satisfy the load demand while maintaining the reliability of the system operation [127,183]. As the control strategy for the system uses a GA-based technique, the peak power trackers (PPTs) are responsible for keeping the PVs and wind turbine generators capable of operating at their maximum operating levels.…”

“…As the control strategy for the system uses a GA-based technique, the peak power trackers (PPTs) are responsible for keeping the PVs and wind turbine generators capable of operating at their maximum operating levels. This resulted in an excellent energy improvement with an excess energy capacity of only 6%-17% and a fairly reasonable cost of electricity value of the system at $0.12/kWh, compared to the cost of electricity of the utility grid at $0.33/kWh and diesel generator at $0.02/kWh [183].…”