Energy-saving and economic analysis of passive radiative sky cooling for telecommunication base station in China

The widespread application of 4G and the rapid development of 5G technologies dramatically increase the energy consumption of telecommunication base station (TBS). Remarkably, the air conditioning system accounts for a significant part of energy consumption in TBS. In this work, passive radiative sky cooling technology has been studied to explore its application potential for TBS. We built a simulation model in DeST to investigate the effect of various envelope thermophysical properties on TBS energy saving. The main influencing factors of the radiative sky cooling on TBS energy saving have been concluded and guidance has been raised for further application. An optimized envelope design combining radiative sky cooling with appropriate heat transfer coefficients has been proposed. The energy-saving and economic analysis of the optimized envelope design at different areas shows that, except for the low heat density TBS in severe cold areas, the annual energy-saving rate is 6.77%–64.29%, and the annual total energy saving is 21.94 kWh/m²–52.74 kWh/m². The payback period is 1.55–4.67 years, and the maximum acceptable cost limited to a 5-year payback period is ＄3.21/m²–＄9.67/m².