Telecom equipment maker Huawei has proposed the concept of “low-carbon target site energy network” to address energy-related challenges for the ICT industry, including telecom operators and data centres.
As carrier networks evolve to higher frequency bands, power consumption per site increases. This means most existing site power supply and battery facilities around the world cannot meet new service requirements and need capacity expansion.
Meanwhile, global energy prices are rising, and carriers’ energy expenditure continues to increase. To address the climate crisis, carbon neutrality has become a global consensus and mission. As key players in national economies, more and more carriers have set their own carbon neutrality goals.
“Emission reduction is carriers’ key task for achieving sustainable development. When using traditional site energy solutions, the deployment of high-band services will bring a number of challenges to carriers, including high CAPEX for capacity expansion, surge in energy consumption, energy expenditure exceeding new revenues, high network carbon emissions, and difficulties in achieving carbon neutrality,” said He Bo, President of Data Center Facility & Critical Power Product Line, Huawei Digital Power, at the company’s event during Mobile World Congress 2023.
Blade solutions for simplified site deployment
The company has developed a series of blade solutions – such as 3–12 kW blade power, 100 Ah blade lithium batteries, and four-in-one blade PV – to enable simplified site deployment. Wall-mounted and pole-mounted installation with zero footprint offers superior energy efficiency of up to 97% at sites with natural heat dissipation. These solutions also allow the reuse of old devices, which means old and new power supplies can run in parallel.
The blade solution’s very high solar energy production and utilisation capacity and simplified O&M also facilitate simplified, efficient, green, and intelligent site energy infrastructure, accelerate the transition to greener site energy, and lead site energy into the future.
Telecom operators globally are looking for ways to find renewable energy solutions for their power supply with an aim to reduce carbon emissions, as well as bring down the operating expenditure to run the sites.
Huawei has brought Blade Power solution for 5G and 4G site deployment and bundled it with its intelligent technology.
“The blade module can support up to 12 kilowatts for such a big power unit and SOP batteries. We can put them on the pole. This is very important on site size, and it is zero footprint.”
The executive said that the solution comes with free cooling technology which means there is no need for air conditioners compared to previous deployments where there used to be cabinets involving air conditioners.
Using solar power to lower costs
Huawei has also launched its iSolar 2.0 solution to bring down the cost of operation by using solar energy to power the site.
“The system is very easy for the deployment and has high efficiency, as it has the smart intelligence optimised for the solar panel. Solar energy co-works with the battery system,” He says, adding that even with dark clouds in the sky, the solar panel can still work with best efficiency compared to traditional solar power systems.
The system increases the power output by 20%, and also brings the requirement to use too many cables. “It is a very easy to deploy the system, and it can also work with traditional power systems such as the battery systems. The system can also work with third party power systems,” He noted. “It will help our customers to introduce more and more renewable energy to the site.”
Huawei envisions ‘energy revolution’
Data centres are also getting bigger and require more energy to power them. Previously there used to be 1-2 megawatt data centres, but now they have gone up to 100 megawatts, thereby requiring a lot of energy. This is a big challenge as it requires a lot of cabinets, transformers, power distributors and filters, along with UPS batteries.
“Our solution for the data centre uses the essential technology to combine these systems into one unit, which helps save a lot of footprint. It is very easy to install in the data centre, and makes it easier to monitor the reliability of the whole system. We invest a lot in the core technology of the UPS module of the load switch. We help the customer save the footprint, save the power, save the time and also help with reliability,” He said.
Huawei’s new solutions have also innovated on the cooling system front by reducing complexity.
“Huawei has a lot of investment in this domain because the world will be intelligent. So we want to contribute to this domain and help save energy substantially. We think it is a great contribution to the world. Huawei-integrated digital and power technology will try to bring energy revolution for a better and greener future. That’s our vision,” he said.
Be the first to comment