For pervasive 5G and IoT, prepare for wind turbines on cells As growing user populations and hunger for mobile capacity drive ever-smaller cell sizes (even before the advent of 5G), electricity becomes a problem. A group of researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology reckon renewables will be the only way to power the small cell networks of the future. In this …
Because where I would want to use them tends to be an urban area with things like houses, & street lights everywhere. Which means mains power is there. I would have thought a 50m cable run for power would be cheaper and more reliable then a wind turbine....
And, correct me if I am wrong but don't these towers normally have a cable into them to carry the data?
Yes I was wondering that too. 5G requires fiber to carry the data volumes it supports, so if you have to pull fiber to the tower you can pull power at the same time.
This seems like people looking for a reason to push renewables more than anything else.
"Now if they had mentioned a big battery that can span several days..."
OK, so you've strapped on a battery, charging electronics, you've got both wind and solar collectors, and you've oversized these both to fast charge the battery when the power's there, and because you''ll lose 25% of power in the charging/discharge cycles. Not looking either simple, cheap or efficient. Heath Robinson would be proud.
The long life of PV panels is correct (although in dusty locations dirt builds up on the panels, requiring regular cleaning), the durability of unattended wind turbines is more questionable, and the life of the battery depends on the extent of cycling. Since I assume it would be running on battery overnight you could be talking about a three year battery life.
I'd also wonder about the volume of resources used in making such a low power base station. Probably less efficient end to end than a grid connection.
The UK has had a few wind powered road signs for a few years now. Their power requirements probably started around the same magnitude as a small scale cell base station.
The wind turbines on the ones I go past don't appear to have worked for most of that time. That's anecdote rather than evidence, but if anyone knows of any evidence it'd be nice to see it.
This is for sites out in rural areas.
As already noted, a different set of challenges applies in built up areas.
Has someone perhaps got something to sell ?
There's a fairly clear argument favour of smaller grid-powered base stations both in reduced energy costs and overall improved reliability. However Yuyi Mao and co. appear to have entirely overlooked the aspects of capital, environmental and service costs of their rather extravagant hardware proposal.
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