Optimal Solar Power System for Remote Telecommunication Base Stations: A Case Study Based on the Characteristics of South Korea’s Solar Radiation Exposure

Abstract

This paper aims to address both the sustainability and environmental issues for cellular base stations in off-grid sites. For cellular network operators, decreasing the operational expenditures of the network and maintaining profitability are important issues. Hence, this study addresses the feasibility of a solar power system based on the characteristics of South Korean solar radiation exposure to supply the required energy to a remote cellular base station. The HOMER is used to determine the optimum size of the system components, to perform an energy production analysis, and to analyse the cost details of the project. The simulation results show that the proposed solar power system can achieve total operational expenditure savings of up to 48.6% by using sustainable and clean energy. This result means a significant long-term benefit can be achieved for cellular network operators.

Comparative Analysis of Solar-Powered Base Stations for Green Mobile Networks

“…A 1-kW PV panel typically has a 5 m 2 area, and the lifetime of a typical PV panel may exceed 25 years [41]. The power generated by a PV panel can be influenced by several factors, such as the DC rating of the PV panel, the tilt angle of the PV panel, and the geographic location or solar irradiation profile of the site at which the panel is located [21]. Large-scale applications typically use PV cells based on mono-and polycrystalline silicon.…”

“…Large-scale applications typically use PV cells based on mono-and polycrystalline silicon. PV panels with a DC rating of 1 kW are priced at approximately $1000 [21].…”

“…In South Korea, the performance of solar-powered LTE BSs was analyzed in [21], which found that these stations could save up to 48.6% OPEX compared with that of a DG system. A PV/WT (wind turbine) hybrid power system for LTE BSs was examined in [22]; the findings of this study indicated that this hybrid system could save up to 48.52% OPEX compared with that of a DG system.…”

A Solar Energy Solution for Sustainable Third Generation Mobile Networks

“…The generation of solar energy depends on numerous factors, including solar radiation, sunlight intensity, and the geolocation of solar panels. The current study considers South Korea as a case study due to the following aspects: (1) it is located at a latitude between 34° N and 38° N; and (2) exhibits excellent potential to use solar energy, particularly because its average daily solar radiation ranges from 2.474 kWh/m 2 in December, to 5.622 kWh/m 2 in May [22,23]. However, the analysis can be generalized to other cases with a slight difference in the daily peak solar hours and solar radiation per case.…”

Energy Efficiency Gain of Cellular Base Stations with Large-Scale Antenna Systems for Green Information and Communication Technology

“…Among various ICT related devices/equipment that cause a lot of environmental pollution, signal transmission systems such as a cellular base stations (BSs) are one of the most power hungry devices [3]. Currently, the amount of data transmission increases about ten times every five years [4,5], and thus the energy efficiency (EE) increase of BSs is a vital research topic.…”