PARTNER FEATURE: Telecom industry is the first industry to commit to the UN’s SDGs. Among these goals, combating climate change is an important and urgent one. Greenland’s ice sheets are melting faster than ever before, almost four times faster than in 2003. Scientists warn that sea levels will rise 28 to 98 centimeters by 2100, depending on how much greenhouse gas is emitted then.

According GSMA’s report, the top 10 carriers in the world cost US$14 billion electricity every year. Telecom operators are all devoting to energy conservation and emission reduction. 5G deployment will improve the industry’s energy efficiency since energy cost per bit on 5G is just one tenth its level on 4G. However the base stations are still energy-hungry at network-level, due to foreseeable tens of times traffic increase.

If the current energy equipment efficiency is applied, the total electricity consumption is expected to double. Taking China as an example, the annual network power consumption is expected to exceed 100 billion kWh. As thermal power prevails at present, this power consumption soar will result in 27.2 billion kilograms of carbon emissions.

For that matter, Huawei believes that a green 5G era means a great deal for the world. The 5G Power solution jointly innovated by Huawei and China Tower is a comprehensive power supply solution for 5G sites. It focuses on improving the energy efficiency of the entire base station and addresses 5G construction and O&M issues. With its intelligent technologies, the power system becomes cognitive, which means the system can collaborate with base station to achieve full-link high efficiency, saving power consumption by up to 18%. In this way, carbon emissions are reduced to the maximum extent.

According to the statistics in Hangzhou, the 5G Power solution put forward by Huawei and China Tower can save 4130 kWh of power per site per year, cutting 1125 kilograms of carbon emissions. Besides, the solution improves 5G construction efficiency for its compact components and higher capacity can support legacy technology and 5G without adding new cabinets, reducing reconstruction cost of a site by more than 2,000 USD.

More than 2 million sites will be built or reconstructed for 5G from 2019 to 2022 in China. Huawei 5G Power solution can save 8.3 billion kWh of electricity each year. According to the released data, 8.3 billion kWh of electricity is almost the household consumption in Iceland for a year. The saved energy reduces 2.3 billion kilograms of carbon emissions, which is equivalent to the carbon dioxide absorbed by 130 million trees in one year. In areas such as Inner Mongolia or Gansu, 130 million trees can protect 88,000 mu (58.7 km2) of land.

Behind these data are technological breakthroughs and innovations made by Huawei and China Tower.

The conversion efficiency is improved by the cutting-edge technologies. The power loss during transmission between devices has long been a difficult problem. If the transmission loss of a single site reduces by 1%, 900 kWh of electricity can be saved. Huawei 5G Power breaks the technical limits and uses intelligent voltage boosting. This eliminates the secondary loss during transmission and improves the full-link energy efficiency by 3%. The intelligent technology enables intelligent collaboration between the cooling system and main equipment. This helps achieve precise and on-demand cooling, improving the site energy efficiency by 5%.

Let the sun power 5G. Huawei 5G Power adopts a modular design. It supports simple connection of solar power. In addition, it uses industry-leading maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technology, and Huawei-developed high-efficiency solar modules with an efficiency of up to 98.5%. Compared with the traditional solar power solution, Huawei 5G power provides 30% more solar power, maximizing the use of sunlight. Clean energy is the most fundamental and effective way to protect climate and ensure sustainable development. Huawei 5G Power enables the sun to promote the development of 5G.

In addition to solar energy, Huawei 5G Power also supports hybrid use of different types of batteries. New lithium batteries can be used together with old lead-acid batteries on the live network to maximize asset residual value, and reduce waste of lead-acid batteries as well as environmental pollution.

In this way, the existing equipment on sites can be fully utilized. Huawei 5G Power is committed to implementing a sustainable and evolvable network infrastructure power solution to address problems such as waste of site resources and environmental pollution. Breaking technical limits is for a better future. In the 5G era, Huawei 5G Power would be dedicated to enabling a greener and better connected world.