On the economic viability of solar energy when upgrading cellular networks

TL;DR

This paper models the economic and technical aspects of integrating solar energy into cellular networks, finding that solar base stations are currently not cost-effective unless a substantial carbon tax is implemented.

Contribution

It introduces a mixed-integer optimization model for evaluating the economic viability of solar-powered cellular networks considering various green technologies.

Findings

Solar base stations are not economically viable at current costs.

A ten-fold increase in carbon tax could make green base stations feasible.

The model incorporates realistic costs for solar equipment and energy management strategies.

Abstract

The massive increase of data traffic, the widespread proliferation of wireless applications and the full-scale deployment of 5G and the IoT, imply a steep increase in cellular networks energy use, resulting in a significant carbon footprint. This paper presents a comprehensive model to show the interaction between the networking and energy features of the problem and study the economical and technical viability of green networking. Solar equipment, cell zooming, energy management and dynamic user allocation are considered in the upgrading network planning process. We propose a mixed-integer optimization model to minimize long-term capital costs and operational energy expenditures in a heterogeneous on-grid cellular network with different types of base station, including solar. Based on eight scenarios where realistic costs of solar panels, batteries, and inverters were considered, we first found that solar base stations are currently not economically interesting for cellular operators. We next studied the impact of a significant and progressive carbon tax on reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). We found that, at current energy and equipment prices, a carbon tax ten-fold the current value is the only element that could make green base stations economically viable.