5G can enhance wind generation – report

5G enabled services could enable sufficient additional generation from wind to heat 2.4 million UK homes by 2035, Vodafone has indicated in new research.

Such a contribution – which is equivalent to the number of homes in Scotland – and taking account of the emissions savings brought about by avoiding gas and coal power, would deliver a reduction of 63Mt of CO2 emissions, or that contributed by about 700,000 petrol fuelled vehicles, by 2035, the research indicates.

The research points to various factors that could bring efficiencies in production and distribution from 5G standalone, i.e. a core 5G network.

These include the use of digital twins created with 5G and IoT sensors to model the impact of wind farms on the environment and 5G enabled remote maintenance drones, which alone could increase the energy capacity of wind farms by up to 8GWh in 2035 and over time translate into an additional 27TWh of energy output.

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In addition 5G-enabled IoT solutions taking advantage of the low latency can enable real time monitoring of wind farms to improve their capacity, for example as much as 68% by optimising the angles of each turbine, while 5G smart grids offer improved monitoring and management of the grid with the intermittent wind generation supply through the collection of complex data sets such as wind speed, temperature and power output.

“Making the switch to renewable energy is fundamental in the UK’s net zero journey and I’m excited about the role 5G standalone can play in accelerating this transition,” comments Andrea Dona, Chief Network Officer at Vodafone UK.

“5G standalone is critical in making renewable energy outputs more reliable, efficient and boosting capacity. This makes the need for a faster 5G rollout even more important.”

Vodafone UK, which considers wind offers one of the greatest potentials for 5G, has entered into a joint venture with Three UK with the plan to invest £11 billion (US$14 billion) to reach over 99% of the UK population with 5G standalone by 2034. 

The combined business, currently named MergeCo, is subject to the standard regulatory approvals, which are expected before the end of 2024.

The research for Vodafone was conducted by WPI Economics, drawing on government and other data and assuming a staggered implementation of 5G-enabled solutions over time.