Small wind turbines for telecom base stations As the incessant demand for wireless communication grows, off-grid telecommunication base station sites continue to be introduced around the globe. In rural or remote areas, where power from the grid is unavailable or unreliable, these cell sites require generator sets to provide power security as prime power or backup standby power. Cited in various papers, the global annual electricity consumption for the telecommunication sector has increased from 219 TWh in 2007 to 354 TWh in 2012, which corresponds to an annual growth rate of 10%. This projection of global electricity consumption is expected to escalate at an annual additional rate of 10% between 2013 and 2018. Accordingly, this makes the telecom operator networks the most electrical energy-intensive consumer within the telecommunication networks that is responsible for the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions it emits into the environment. The presentation is a state of the art overview on aspects of coupling small windturbines to telecom basestations. Worldwide thousands of base stations provide relaying mobile phone signals. Every off-grid base station has a diesel generator up to 4 kW to provide electricity for the electronic equipment involved. The presentation gives attention to the requirements on using windenergy as an energy source for powering mobile phone base stations. Requirements as: Sufficient wind speed, Dimensioning the system, cost effectiveness, installing on existing tower structure, maintenance, and remote monitoring and controlling. An overview of manufacturers and best practices will be given. Also opportunities for mobile network operators to provide electricity beyond the base station and into local communities, “Community Power”. Attention is also given to radio interaction between Small Wind Turbines and Base Station Antennas.

1. 7th World Summit for Small Wind 2016
Windturbines and telecom
telecom is the fastest growing source of CO2
Frits Ogg
O2G Sustainable Energy Solutions
The Netherlands
Husum 18 march 2016
Xzeres.com

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Content
● Telecom base station, Provider, Infra
● Grid, off-grid and bad grid
● Energy use, rise of CO2 from telecom
● Solar/Wind, Batteries and Fuelcells
● Wind and businesscase
● CAPEX and OPEX
● Community wind and telecom
● Green power for mobile program
● Applications and Sources Bergey.com

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Worldwide telecom system
Telecom
Provider
Fortiswindenergy
Base station
Base station

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Telecom Base station sustainable
mdpi.com
Kestrelwind.co.za

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Providers – telecom infra
Telecom providers:
Tower and
infra
companies:

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Grid, off-grid and bad grid
Out of ~ 1,3 million base stations world wide (out of 1-4 million)

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Markets
By region
● North America
● Latin America
● Western Europe
● Eastern Europe
● APEJ
● Japan
● Middle East& Africa
By Product
Unreliable grid
● Diesel
● Diesel+Battery
● Renewable Energy
Off-Grid
● Diesel
● Diesel+Battery
● Renewable Energy
Reliable grid
Source: Green power for mobile

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Major drivers for the growth in off-
grid and bad-grid towers
●
Rural network expansion
• Rural economy
• Universal coverage mandate
• Poor reach of grid power
infrastructure
• Unreliable grid power supply
Source: Green power for mobile

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Energy use of a standard base station
mdpi.com
● Each diesel base
station ~ 20,000 l/yr.
● The cost of running on
diesel $30,000 per year.
● Fuel has to be
physically brought to the
site. Some remote
places, transported by
helicopter.

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Rise of CO2 use
If the MNOs and TowerCos continue to use diesel, as is the case for
more than 90% of all off-grid and bad-grid towers today:
• Diesel consumption for telecom towers will increase by 13-15%
from today’s levels, to over 150 million barrels per year. The resulting
annual cost of diesel will be over US$19 billion in 2020,
or US$5 per mobile-phone user per year.
• About 45 million tons of CO2 per year will be released.
● Conversion to more efficient, greener alternative power solutions,
could save the industry US$13-14 billion annually. Adoption of these
green technologies at scale also has the potential to generate
approximately 40 million tons and US$100-500 million
annually in carbon savings.
Source: GSMA – green power for telecom program

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Solar, Solar/Wind, Wind, Batteries and Fuelcells
● Solar
● Solar/Wind
● Wind
● Batteries
● Hydrogen and Fuel cells
● Variable speed DC
genset
+ energy conservation ! With fuel cell: efoy-pro.com

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Wind worldwide
Source: irena.masdar.ac.ae/?map=103

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Businesscase
Business case for an existing site depends
on a number of factors;
● Average wind speed in the area-site
● Height of the tower
● Site load. Max load during the day
● Site design, No of TRX, Base station type,
Transmission, A/C
● Cost per kWh from the grid or total diesel costs
● Battery capacity
● Wind as a backup, primary source, solar elements
● Accessibility of the site
● Total cost of ownership
Source: Zephyr

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CAPEX OPEX TCO ESCO
● CAPEX
● OPEX
● TCO & INFRA
● ESCO
A traditional base station costs $120,000 to build.
A site powered by RE is slightly more expensive,
but the additional cost is won back in
operational savings after 15 to 18 months.
And after that, a company can save $120,000
to $150,000 in reduced operating costs over
a five-year period. (Source: Flexenclosure)
●Priority on expanding networks and upgrading technology of active equipment.
●A crucial driver of the conversion to greener alternatives will be energy service
companies (ESCOs) that provide energy to towers owned by MNOs and TowerCos
●Many MNOs across the world, especially in Asia and Africa, are in the process of
selling off their tower assets, including the energy infrastructure, to third-party
structures. This trend, is expected to intensify. (Source: Green Power for Mobile)

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Not only social benefit for communities but also improving
the business case for off-grid telecoms by:
(a) growing revenu streams,
(b) improving base station security,
(c) charging mobile phones for increased usage, or
(d) outsourcing power provision to third party companies
to achieve lower power cost.
Community wind: using mobile to extend the grid or
using local community grid for mobile?
GSM Association January 2010, Community
Power, Using Mobile to
Extend the Grid
The consistent power requirements of a
mobile base station provide a stable
“constant load” demand for a bigger
investment in a village energy system,
powering both the station and local
homes and businesses.

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Community Wind (2)
Typically with more than
5 kilowatts (kW) of excess power
Communities will no longer
have to waste time travelling
long distances to charge devices.
Potential for 200,000 Community
Power projects worldwide, which
could provide sustainable electricity to 120 million people.

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Radio interaction between SWT and
base station antenna's
François LE PENNEC, Tran Vu LA, Marc
AUBREE, Timo GALKIN, Loutfi NUAYMI, Serge
ELENGA

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Green power for mobile program

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Conclusions (in-between)
● Great chances for windturbines and kilowatt
windturbines but shift toward opex needed.
● Reliability of the windturbine is important =>
proven track record.
● Marketing SWT branche insufficient.
● Chance to combine community wind and
telecom.
● Much more solar powered telecom towers now
than wind or hybrid powered.

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Applications
Fortiswindenergy.com Kenya 4,5 m/s PV-Diesel-Wind

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More applications 2
Steca.com
Stectel.com
Xzeres.com
Zephyr.com
Bergey.com

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More applications 3
Icewind.is
Kestrelwind.co.za
Leturbines.com
Wishenergy.com

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Sources
My own Idea's for the telecom industry:
●Use cell towers to track windvelocity worldwide
●For grid coupled base stations: apply RE, for
emergency by natural and man-made disasters
Gsma.com
Regenpower.com
Mdpi.com
irena.masdar.ac.ae/?map=103
absak.com
efoy-pro.com
Flexenclosure.com (e-site)
Stectel.com
Xzeres.com
Fortiswindenergy.com
Steca.com
Zephyr.com
Kestrelwind.co.za
Leturbines.com
Icewind.is
Wishenergy.com
Bergey.com
Ifc.org/climatebusiness
Fairmountweather.com
Vavuud.com

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Thank you for your attention
fritsogg@gmail.com www.o2g.nl
@fishfrogg skype: frits.ogg
My Ham Radio
call is PA2LIA