SolarCell delivers sustainable solution in rural areas using solar power technology
Baicells Technologies, an emerging provider of global LTE solutions, has announced the release of the first solar powered small cell product during MWCA. The device is called, aptly, SolarCell. This product is a sustainable, efficient, and low-cost solution that will address common issues that occur during network deployments in rural areas.
According to a BBC report, half of the world has no Internet coverage and even though mobile phones have been available for more than 30 years, 1.4bn people around the world live in the absence of basic network facilities.
In rural areas, availability of adequate power also remains an issue. In these areas where the grid is less stable, network power supply largely depends on diesel. Added with re-occuring labour costs for monthly operation, the CAPEX for diesel power is often too heavy. Solar power solves this challenge.
Baicells SolarCell offers the following benefits:
Sustainability
Only 6 hours of sunshine is needed to keep the entire system running for approximately 48 hours. In the event of cloudy weather, there is a rechargeable back-up battery that supports the system in active use for 48 hours or on standby for 96 hours.
Efficiency
Power consumption is reduced to less than 20 per cent than that of a macro base station, but the same coverage distance (more than 10 kilometers) as a macro base station is guaranteed, as the BBU is integrated in one box, 80 per cent of traditional base station’s total power consumption is saved. Additionally, Baicells adopted Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) technology to make solar energy utilization efficiency to the highest (99 per cent versus 70-80 per cent in the industry).
Easy deployment
SolarCell makes deployment easy with its integrated all-in-one design, which includes antenna, RRU, BBU, and a small solar panel that measures 100 cm wide by 162 cm long. It can be deployed in various environments, such as remote mountainous areas, wetlands, etc. For the backhaul solution, there are flexible choices including satellite, microwave, macro base station, and wired Ethernet.
Low cost
Not only does this device reduce the carbon emission due to its utilisation of natural green energy, it also reduces any dependence on diesel to supply power to the network, which considerably decreases traditional operation cost. Remote visualized operation system also makes it easier and more reliable to manage the network, reducing OPEX.
Wei Bai, Vice President of Baicells Technologies, stated, “The future of wireless broadband is green. We feel that this sustainable and inexpensive product can make a huge difference anywhere, especially in less populated or rural communities. SolarCell is small yet powerful, with its efficiency benefiting both the user and environment.”
