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

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 pr...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Mohammed W. Baidas, Rola W. Hasaneya, Rashad M. Kamel, Sultan Sh. Alanzi
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	base stations cellular networks diesel generator HOMER photovoltaic renewable energy Technology T
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/35c524c197414b90a385514716116334
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:35c524c197414b90a385514716116334
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:35c524c197414b90a3855147161163342021-11-25T17:26:00ZSolar-Powered Cellular Base Stations in Kuwait: A Case Study10.3390/en142274941996-1073https://doaj.org/article/35c524c197414b90a3855147161163342021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/22/7494https://doaj.org/toc/1996-1073With 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, CO<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mrow></mrow><mn>2</mn></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> 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 CO<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mrow></mrow><mn>2</mn></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> 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 CO<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mrow></mrow><mn>2</mn></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> emissions; however, at the expense of more land.Mohammed W. BaidasRola W. HasaneyaRashad M. KamelSultan Sh. AlanziMDPI AGarticlebase stationscellular networksdiesel generatorHOMERphotovoltaicrenewable energyTechnologyTENEnergies, Vol 14, Iss 7494, p 7494 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	base stations cellular networks diesel generator HOMER photovoltaic renewable energy Technology T
spellingShingle	base stations cellular networks diesel generator HOMER photovoltaic renewable energy Technology T Mohammed W. Baidas Rola W. Hasaneya Rashad M. Kamel Sultan Sh. Alanzi Solar-Powered Cellular Base Stations in Kuwait: A Case Study
description	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, CO<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mrow></mrow><mn>2</mn></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> 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 CO<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mrow></mrow><mn>2</mn></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> 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 CO<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msub><mrow></mrow><mn>2</mn></msub></semantics></math></inline-formula> emissions; however, at the expense of more land.
format	article
author	Mohammed W. Baidas Rola W. Hasaneya Rashad M. Kamel Sultan Sh. Alanzi
author_facet	Mohammed W. Baidas Rola W. Hasaneya Rashad M. Kamel Sultan Sh. Alanzi
author_sort	Mohammed W. Baidas
title	Solar-Powered Cellular Base Stations in Kuwait: A Case Study
title_short	Solar-Powered Cellular Base Stations in Kuwait: A Case Study
title_full	Solar-Powered Cellular Base Stations in Kuwait: A Case Study
title_fullStr	Solar-Powered Cellular Base Stations in Kuwait: A Case Study
title_full_unstemmed	Solar-Powered Cellular Base Stations in Kuwait: A Case Study
title_sort	solar-powered cellular base stations in kuwait: a case study
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/35c524c197414b90a385514716116334
work_keys_str_mv	AT mohammedwbaidas solarpoweredcellularbasestationsinkuwaitacasestudy AT rolawhasaneya solarpoweredcellularbasestationsinkuwaitacasestudy AT rashadmkamel solarpoweredcellularbasestationsinkuwaitacasestudy AT sultanshalanzi solarpoweredcellularbasestationsinkuwaitacasestudy
_version_	1718412343611752448

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

Ejemplares similares