Are solar powered cellular base stations a viable solution?

Cellular base stations powered by renewable energy sources such as solar power have emerged as one of the promising solutions to these issues. This article presents an overview of the state-of- the-art in the design and deployment of solar powered cellular base stations.

How to make base station (BS) green and energy efficient?

This paper aims to consolidate the work carried out in making base station (BS) green and energy efficient by integrating renewable energy sources (RES). Clean and green technologies are mandatory for reduction of carbon footprint in future cellular networks.

What are the components of a base station?

A typical base station consists of different sub-systems which can consume energy as shown in Fig. 4. These sub-systems include baseband (BB) processors, transceiver (TRX) (comprising power amplifier (PA), RF transmitter and receiver), feeder cable and antennas, and air conditioner ( Ambrosy et al., 2011 ).

Can a BS install a solar array or a wind turbine?

However, the foremost challenge in equipping a BS with a solar array or a wind turbine is the sizing and configuration of the systems. Sizing of PV arrays and turbines is directly effected by the fact whether or not a BS is off-grid or on-grid.

What is a hybrid solar/wind based power system?

A hybrid solar/wind based power system comprises PV array, wind turbine, battery bank, controller, inverter, cabling, and other devices (such as fuses etc.). The layout of a BS employing conventional as well as renewable energy sources is shown in Fig. 5.

Can off-grid BS be used for solar panels and wind turbines?

A number of off-grid and stand-alone BSs have been modeled for deployment of solar panels and wind turbine as shown in literature ( Bian et al., 2013; Yu and Qian, 2009; He and Qian, 2009; Hashimoto et al., 2003; McGuire et al., 2012 ).