As part of the forthcoming “Connected Hobart; a Smart City forum” a central feature of the logo for the event is “Eco-Energy”. Now this term is defined on the ICI Global website as: “Natural and clean energy solutions for a green environment protecting ecology”. So, it would seem to be a no-brained that Hobart’s “Eco-Energy” should mean reduced greenhouse gas emissions with more efficient 5G technology, and overall reduced energy usage.This may be the case for Tasmania with its hydro and planned pumped hydro and wind farms, but certainly not for the rest of Australia. According to Origin Energy, Of Australia’s overall energy supply, 73% comes from coal, 13% from natural gas, 7% from hydro power, and 7% from renewables. So, 86% of Australia’s energy usage is from greenhouse gas emitters, coal and gas.
Will the planned nationwide rollout of 5G networks reduce Australia’s greenhouse emissions with “Eco-Energy” 5G smart city technology? Unfortunately it looks like being the opposite, according to a new 5G report by Vertiv, and the technology analyst firm 451 Research.
Titled: “5G: The Risks and Rewards for Operators”, the report gives the findings of a detailed survey of more than 100 telecommunications decision makers dealing with 5G. The research covers 5G deployment plans, services supported by early deployments, and the most important technical enablers for 5G success.
One of the key findings is that 5G technology will likely increase total network energy consumption by 150 to 170 per cent by 2026. To quote in part:
“As we mentioned above, 5G is going to be significantly more energy-intensive than previous generations of wireless connectivity – so much so that extra efficiency measures will need to be taken to ensure a worthwhile investment for infrastructure and telecommunications providers alike. A whopping 94% of our survey respondents indicated that they expected overall energy costs to increase along with 5G/MEC deployments.”
From the report:
Under Key findings: “5G is widely expected to raise overall energy costs. – Nearly all (94%) respondents indicated that 5G will raise overall energy costs. Given the prominence of energy as an overall percentage of opex, it’s clear that mitigation strategies will be critical to maintain 5G business case viability.”
” 5G connectivity requires a significant amount of energy to run, especially after technologies are put in place to manage and dictate the direction of the traffic. The technology inside datacenters will have to adjust to make 5G adoption cost-effective for telecom providers.”
“As we mentioned above, 5G is going to be significantly more energy-intensive than previous generations of wireless connectivity – so much so that extra efficiency measures will need to be taken to ensure a worthwhile investment for infrastructure and telecommunications providers alike. A whopping 94% of our survey respondents indicated that they expected overall energy costs to increase along with 5G/MEC deployments.”
“The impact of distributed 5G infrastructure on energy consumption will be vast and will require a collaborative effort that will cut across business units, new datacenter designs, technological innovations in battery and cooling, and AI-enabled remote management.”
Under recommendations: • “Order an energy audit ahead of 5G rollout to ensure site-level readiness. – Conduct an energy audit across existing IT facilities in anticipation of 5G net-energy increase.”
An internal analysis by Vertiv discovered that “the move to 5G is likely to increase total network energy consumption by 150 to 170 per cent by 2026. The largest cost increases will be in macro, node and network data centres”….SNIP
- Read the Report Telco Industry Hopes and Fears FROM ENERGY COSTS TO EDGE COMPUTING TRANSFORMATION 2019
- Read Press release Vertiv and 451 Research Release New Report on 5G Preparedness and Technical Enablers: With 5G Deployments Advancing Rapidly, Operators Share Plans for Dealing with Increasing Densification, Higher Energy Consumption
- Read 2/2019 “5G is likely to increase total network energy consumption by 150 to 170 per cent by 2026″
Read more reports that show increased energy consumption from the EHT webpage at Reports on the Increasing Energy Use of Wireless Systems and Digital Ecosystem
Also see:
Power Consumption: 5G Basestations Are Hungry, Hungry Hippos
News Analysis
Dan Jones 3/6/2019
The increased power consumption of next-generation basestations may be one of the dirty little secrets of 5G, which might not be a secret much longer as operators roll out initial networks.
The power consumption of a 5G basestation is three times that of its 4G LTE predecessor, according to Zhengmao Li, EVP at China Mobile, at a presentation at Mobile World Congress last week, as noted by my Heavy Reading Colleague, Gabriel Brown:
5G basestations bump up the power requirements over 4G LTE, in part because of the massive antenna arrays (MIMO) used for the next generation tech. Earl Lum, president of EJL Wireless Research, says that MIMO increases the “power amplifiers” and “analog-to-digital paths” required, as well as overall digital circuitry in the units. For instance, typical 4G basestations now use 4 transmitter and 4 receiver (4T4R) elements, while 5G is expected to use 64T64R MIMO arrays…SNIP
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