Last summer, our intern Mark Crouch from Imperial College researched fuel cell systems, including the types of technologies available, the prevalence of their use, advantages and disadvantages at mobile base stations as well as technical and financial drivers. As well as an extensive literature review, Mark also spent some time in South East Asia interviewing experts in the field, visiting sites and examining case studies. He also moderated a Fuel Cell session at the South East Asian Working Group in Bali, July 2011. The results of his investigation have been published in our white paper, Fuel Cell Systems for Base Stations: Deep Dive Study.
In summary, Mark expresses that fuel cell systems have long been considered suitable for remote stationary power applications with a high cost of downtime, such as mobile base stations. Fuel cell design and manufacturing improvements, combined with increased volumes being produced, have seen costs decline whilst technical performance, reliability and longevity has improved. This has seen the technology transition from field trials at base stations to commercial deployments over the last 2-3 years.
Misconceptions around fuel cells are common in the mobile industry for a variety of reasons, including the rate of technology development. Additionally, the term ‘fuel cell’ covers a broad family of technologies suitable for different applications which can also run on a variety of fuels, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Base station energy requirements vary from site to site and region to region, meaning that finding the right solution is not always obvious. The goal of this study was to condense the current technology status and outlook into a digestible form—considering technical, economic and environmental performance—for GSMA members.
Download the full report here.
