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

Mohammed W. Baidas, Rola W. Hasaneya, Rashad M. Kamel and Sultan Sh. Alanzi
Additional contact information
Mohammed W. Baidas: Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering and Petroleum, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat, Kuwait City 13060, Kuwait
Rola W. Hasaneya: Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering and Petroleum, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat, Kuwait City 13060, Kuwait
Rashad M. Kamel: Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering and Petroleum, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat, Kuwait City 13060, Kuwait
Sultan Sh. Alanzi: Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering and Petroleum, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat, Kuwait City 13060, Kuwait

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-26

Abstract: 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 2 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 2 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 2 emissions; however, at the expense of more land.

Keywords: base stations; cellular networks; diesel generator; HOMER; photovoltaic; renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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