Techno-Economic Analysis of the Hybrid Solar PV/H/Fuel Cell Based Supply Scheme for Green Mobile Communication

Hydrogen has received tremendous global attention as an energy carrier and an energy storage system. Hydrogen carrier introduces a power to hydrogen (P2H), and power to hydrogen to power (P2H2P) facility to store the excess energy in renewable energy storage systems, with the facts of large-scale storage capacity, transportability, and multiple utilities. This work examines the techno-economic feasibility of hybrid solar photovoltaic (PV)/hydrogen/fuel cell-powered cellular base stations for developing green mobile communication to decrease environmental degradation and mitigate fossil-fuel crises. Extensive simulation is carried out using a hybrid optimization model for electric renewables (HOMER) optimization tool to evaluate the optimal size, energy production, total production cost, per unit energy production cost, and emission of carbon footprints subject to different relevant system parameters. In addition, the throughput, and energy efficiency performance of the wireless network is critically evaluated with the help of MATLAB-based Monte-Carlo simulations taking multipath fading, system bandwidth, transmission power, and inter-cell interference (ICI) into consideration. Results show that a more stable and reliable green solution for the telecommunications sector will be the macro cellular basis stations driven by the recommended hybrid supply system. The hybrid supply system has around 17% surplus electricity and 48.1 h backup capacity that increases the system reliability by maintaining a better quality of service (QoS). To end, the outcomes of the suggested system are compared with the other supply scheme and the previously published research work for justifying the validity of the proposed system.