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The Small Cell Forum predicts the installed base of small cells to reach 70.2 million in 2025 and the total installed base of 5G or multimode small cells in 2025 to be 13.1 million. “A 5G base station is generally expected to consume roughly three times as much power as a 4G base station.
However, Li says 5G base stations are carrying five times the traffic as when equipped with only 4G, pushing up power consumption. The carrier is seeking subsidies from the Chinese government to help with the increased energy usage.
That's almost a threefold increase compared to 4G (5). One 5G base station is estimated to consume about as much power as 73 households (6), and 3x as much as the previous generation of base stations (5), (7).
China Mobile has tried using lower cost deployments of MIMO antennas, specifically 32T32R and sometimes 8T8R rather than 64T64R, according to MTN. However, Li says 5G base stations are carrying five times the traffic as when equipped with only 4G, pushing up power consumption.
The Salto Grande Hydroelectric Plant with 1800 MW is the largest power station in Uruguay. Wind farm in Valentines. In the years leading up to 2009, the Uruguayan electricity system faced difficulties to supply the increasing demand from its domestic market.
Maximum demand on the order of 1,500 MW (historic peak demand, 1,668 MW happened in July 2009 ) is met with a generation system of about 2,200 MW capacity. This apparently wide installed reserve margin conceals a high vulnerability to hydrology. Access to electricity in Uruguay is very high, above 98.7%.
This report on bringing 5G to power explores how the shift to renewables creates opportunities and challenges through connected power distribution grids.
Of the installed capacity, about 29% is hydropower, accounting for 1,538 MW which includes half of the capacity of the Argentina-Uruguay bi-national Salto Grande, a similar share corresponds to wind farms while the rest is composed mainly of biomass, photovoltaic solar and thermal. The table below shows the installed capacity as of 2024: