Solar PV powered mobile cellular base station: Models and use cases in South Africa

Abstract

The huge costs of operating a mobile cellular base station, and the negative impact of greenhouse gasses on the environment have made the solar PV renewable energy source a sought after. In addition to cost and environmental factor, abundant supply of solar radiation in Southern part of Africa, and the drive to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide by the year 2020 and to improve the quantity of power supply are also part of many incentives to power communication base station systems with solar PV cells. To this end, solar PV powered base stations have become important integration into a mobile cellular network. Thus, this article exploits the use of solar PV powered mobile cellular base station systems in South Africa. It was also found through this feasibility study that the country has a solar radiation between 4.5 kWh/m2 and 6.5 kWh/m2. Also found was that the use of solar PV cellular base station will lead to about 49 % reduction in operation cost compared to using the diesel generating sets. Therefore, this article, as a feasibility study, explore the use of solar energy capacity of South Africa towards powering the mobile cellular base station. This article will also contribute to research base, as there are few number of literature found on this topic in South Africa.