CORDIS

The fifth generation 5G of mobile technology will support 1,000 times more capacity per unit area than 4G, for more than 100 billion devices with typical user rates of 10 Gb/s, and significantly lower latency and higher reliability. The higher capacity demanding human-centric communications will be complemented by an enormous increase in the number of communicating machines, the so called Internet of Things (IoT). 5G will enable the co-existence of multiple types of access technologies, multiple types of devices and applications, and a much higher connectivity density through an ultra-dense network of heterogeneous base stations (BSs).
However, this enormous growth in the number of devices and access points will also lead to an equally large growth in the carbon footprint of the information and communication technologies (ICTs). According to a recent report by Digital Power Group, the world’s ICT ecosystem already consumes about 1500 TWh of electric energy annually, approaching 10% of the world electricity generation. Consequently, major industry players have already put environmental sustainability in their roadmap to 5G. Furthermore, connecting this dense network of BSs to the energy grid, and regularly recharging drained end device batteries is physically impractical, if not impossible.
Sustainable design of cellular networks is therefore a key growth sector for societal prosperity and will require significant numbers of highly skilled researchers.
A promising solution to restrain the negative impact of the ICT sector on the environment and reduce the energy costs, while providing the 5G network with the much-needed autonomy from the energy grid, is harvesting the available ambient energy.
The SCAVENGE project proposes a sustainable paradigm for 5G mobile networks, where base stations and connected end devices are powered with local energy resources (LERs), e.g. solar and/or wind energy.