 | Issue: | 2010 |
| Article no.: | 8 | |
| Topic: | Blowing your way wind-powered base stations | |
| Author: | Mats Vilander | |
| Title: | GM for EMEA | |
| Organisation: | Zephyr Corporation | |
| PDF size: | 1674KB |
About author
Mats Vilander is the Zephyr Corporation’s General Manager for the EMEA region where their small wind turbines power the base stations of a number of operators in the Middle East and Africa. Mr Vilander has held executive positions in Ericsson, ZTE, Price Waterhouse and Andersen Global Corporate Finance; he was also Managing Director of the Swedish Venture Capital Association Station Company. During his career Mr Vilander has completed and led over 15 GSM license bids all over the world. Mats Vilander holds a MBA from UCLA in Finance and a M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Finance and Economics from Stockholm School of Business and Uppsala University.
Article abstract
Wind is an ancient source of power, but today we are harnessing it as a sustainable, low-cost, ecologically friendly substitute for common sources of electrical power for rural mobile radio base stations. The GSMA, estimates a need for nearly 639 thousand off-grid base stations in emerging markets by 2012; they hope to have 118 thousand of these powered with renewable energy. Operators using wind power can save between 50 and 100 per cent of their diesel consumption at remote sites.
Full Article
Wind power has been around for thousands of years and has evolved from powering windmills to grind grain into a reliable, sustainable and cost-effective energy source. Of course, telecoms are not the only industry that is benefiting from the commercialisation of wind power. A market study by NextGen Research, Global Wind Power Market: The Outlook for Renewable Energy Generation by Wind Turbines and Wind Farms, forecasts that global wind-based electrical generation capacity will reach 318.5 GW (gigawatts) by 2013. NextGen says that spurring this growth will be a boom in China’s renewable energy industry; government support in the form of subsidies, feed-in tariffs and renewable portfolio standards, and international goals for renewable energy usage established under accords like the Kyoto Protocol and the EU’s Renewables Directive. The mobile trade organisation, the GSMA, estimates a rollout of nearly 639,000 off-grid base stations in emerging markets by 2012 and is aiming for 118,000 of these to be powered with renewable energy. The telecoms industry as a whole now accepts that diesel-generators are neither a commercially sustainable nor an environmentally sensible way of powering base stations in off-grid locations. The GSMA is doing all it can to make sure that it meets the 118,000 target through its Green Power for Mobile (GPM) initiative which encourages operators to opt for base stations powered by renewable energy in off-grid areas instead of diesel generators. “Renewable energy base stations are the best way for mobile operators to extend their networks off-grid while minimising energy costs and their impact on the environment”, says David Taverner, Senior Programme Manager for the GSMA’s GPM. There’s no lack of sun in the Middle East and Africa, so when we’ve discussed alternative power in the region in the past we have usually been talking about solar. All the big vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei and VNL have solar-powered base stations in their portfolios. Still, solar does have its drawbacks. First, it is not suited to areas prone to fog and clouds. Second, the panels require a large space and are relatively easy to steal, so they usually require a surrounding fence and constant on-site security – all of which adds to the cost of deployment. Wind power is now a real option in the region – although you might not recall the last time you were caught in a gale in the Middle East or Africa! Take a look at this wind chart of Africa and you’ll see that many areas can easily support wind turbines. If you want to check wind speeds in your area then NASA, the US space agency, has global wind maps that show wind speeds at 40 metres above the earth’s surface. Combining this with historical weather data makes it quite straightforward to work out if a site might be used for wind power. It seems as though the industry has been talking about wind power for a long time; the good news is that the technology has improved massively over the last few years. Previously wind turbines weren’t really mature enough for deployment on a mass-scale. They were too expensive, required a lot of maintenance and the turbines were large, heavy, difficult to install – and, most importantly, required high wind speeds. All these problems have been solved with a new generation of small wind turbines which are lightweight, can be installed on existing towers and can generate energy at much lower wind speeds than previously of around 3 metres per second. With the correct installation maintenance can be reduced to zero as today’s turbines can be controlled and checked remotely. Commercial wind turbine deployments We are now starting to see wind-powered commercial base stations in the Middle East and Africa in both off-grid and on-grid areas, at new sites and retrofitted at existing sites. In off-grid situations wind power reduce the reliance on diesel generators. Operators who have implemented wind power are saving around 50 per cent of the diesel consumption for existing remote rural sites, sometimes up to 100 per cent of diesel (at repeater sites). Plus, of course, the costs of transporting the diesel and risks need to be factored in. According to Allen Nogee, an analyst at telecoms research firm In-Stat: “While diesel pollution is an environmental issue, what bothers operators the most is the cost of powering and securing the generators. Diesel fuel has to be trucked to remote sites, and theft of diesel fuel and equipment can cost operators millions of dollars. The solution is for operators to at least partially power remote base stations with wind turbines, solar panels, or both. This is truly a case where it pays to be green.” Some operators, to compliment solar-generated power, also use wind. Solar is used during the day and wind is used day and night to both power the network and charge up batteries. Cost and ROI of wind power. The 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, maximum load during the day • Site design, the number of TRX, base station type, transmission • Installed battery capacity • Wind as a backup, or primary source, solar elements • Accessibility of site Obviously costs also depend on the vendor chosen, but as an estimate, the cost of buying and installing two turbines to power a typical rural GSM base station requiring 600 watts on an existing tower with 6-7 m/s of wind is around ZAR 114,000 – 152,000 (approximately US $ 15,380- 20,500). The In-Stat research company predicts that by 2014, over 230,000 cellular base stations in developing countries will be solar-powered or wind-powered. Certainly wind power is now ready for commercial deployment. Some governments are intervening to support the use of wind power and encourage the creation of mini wind farms that can be used by a number of operators. The old way of using diesel as the primary energy source or backup results in higher costs over time while wind has the opposite effect.
