5G Power: Creating a green grid that slashes costs, emissions
In the 5G era, the maximum energy consumption of a 64T64R active antenna unit (AAU) will be an estimated 1 to 1.4 kW to 2 kW for a baseband unit (BBU). Base stations with multiple
Setting up a 5G base station is expensive, with costs ranging from $100,000 to $200,000 per site. This price includes hardware, installation, site rental, and maintenance. Urban areas often have higher costs due to land prices and infrastructure challenges.
In terms of energy consumption, 5G base stations require continuous operation and stability, which leads to significant electricity consumption (Guo et al., 2022a). This power is mainly supplied by transmission equipment and auxiliary equipment, such as transformers, UPS power supplies, and cooling equipment.
As 5G serves as the foundation for the construction of new infrastructure, China, as the world leader in 5G base station construction, has already built over 1.4 million 5G base stations in 2021 alone. In the same year, 5G base stations in China produced approximately 49.2 million tons of CO 2 eq.
The results indicate that, due to the high carbon emissions resulting from the new infrastructure, the carbon emissions of 5G base stations in China in 2021 amounted to 49.2 MtCO 2 eq.
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