Autonomous solar power station for cellular transponder. Leap into the unknown and what came of it
Russia is a huge country, and providing all its territory with cellular communication is not a task of their lungs. Our team always reads with interest the blog of the yellow-striped company, which sometimes, in incredible conditions, manages to install cell towers in the most bearish corners of our state.
Briefly about us: we are engaged in alternative energy since 2008, mainly solar.
The Republic of Altai, in which we mainly develop our activities, is quite a mountainous territory, and there are still plenty of places where there is no cellular connection. One of such places is Turochaksky district, in which mainly mountains, forest and deaf taiga. Nevertheless, people live here, despite the fact that electricity is generated by diesel generators, there is not much work, and there are even more favorable conditions for business.
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A year ago (in 2013), we received a proposal to build an autonomous solar power station to power the cellular transponder. The customer was the district administration, and the regional branch Vimpelcom took over the direct connection. The engineers of this company are highly qualified specialists and just great guys. Cooperation with them took place in a very benevolent and constructive manner. We enthusiastically responded to this proposal, and began to work out solutions. What came out of it, read under the cut.
In a nutshell, the task lay ahead: to build a solar station on top of one of the mountains, to power the repeater, which transmitted a signal from the base station in the village where the BS is connected to the optics. The target community hid behind this mountain, was powered by electricity from diesel generators, and there was no connection from Soviet times.
What was required to do:
1. 48 V DC system
2. The capacity of the battery should be enough for 10 days of telecommunications equipment.
3. You need a warm room, with the support of a certain temperature range for the installation of batteries, controllers, 19 "racks and communication equipment.
4. Fencing (although we still doubt whether the bear will break this fence)
The main problem faced is the delivery to the place of deployment.
The top of the mountain Tash-Chertog had no access roads. therefore, there was only one way out - to load everything onto a tiller tractor, and to make it to the top.
Below is a piece from a Google maps map, which schematically shows the starting points.
The coordinates indicate the top of the mountain Tash-Chertog, on which the station is installed.
07/01/2013 All the preparations were made, the transport was loaded and we hit the road. Which turned out to be very difficult, the distance to the top was 6 km, but the skidding tractor twice broke the tracks, for the third time something flowed from him, and finally, for the fourth time, after spending 6 hours, we found ourselves.
Preparing the platform for download
Go!
Stuck like this, sometimes even worse.
Anyway, everyone is alive and well, got to the place and began work.
First stage. Marking the territory under the fence, marking the places under the "tables" for solar panels, with orientation to the south.
Spin piles under it all.
They put the fence, began to mount the tables under the solar panels.
Further painting of metal structures and installation of solar modules on the tables.
General view of the installed panels.
Then they erected a container for equipment, battery, webasto and other trifles. Standard frame construction with insulation, nothing special.
The container is built, insulated, protected and ready to accept batteries, charge controllers and other equipment.
We are assembling a 48 volt system - 6 clusters of 4 batteries of 12 V. To the wall we fasten the Morningstar MPPT 60A charge controllers 3 pcs.
Particular attention should be paid to the choice of cable cross-section and contact points at the battery terminals, in order to avoid heating.
Next, set the fuel tank for Webasto
In the meantime, VimpelCom engineers installed their rack with equipment.
Some common types of solar station and repeater.
Station from the height of the repeater
General form. In the photo, our engineers.
Perhaps someone will be interested in the landscape from the top of the mountain. The views are beautiful and harsh. There are plenty of bears around.
By 07.15.2013, the station was launched, and by 1.09.2013, in the village of Biika, a mobile connection started. The Internet has also appeared, but only in GPRS / EDGE mode, but 3G will be deployed in the near future, according to Beeline’s engineers.
Until the beginning of December 2013, the system worked stably and did not cause trouble until power outages appeared. It turned out that the meteorological data received on the snow cover turned out to be incorrect, and almost all of the station’s fence fell down with snow, the panels fell asleep and the snow did not have time to stay — the batteries practically didn’t walk, the short sunny day also affected the trees. - autumn season. It was decided to promptly fix the problems that had arisen, and we again gathered on a business trip.
During the work there was a decision to install the panels vertically so that the snow in any case could not cover the panels. Also, with the permission of the Ministry of Forestry, the tops of interfering trees were slightly sawed. According to foresters, there is nothing deadly in this, and the trees are safe.
Some photos from this trip:
This picture appeared before us on arrival.
In the meantime, they installed an outdoor IP video camera and mounted it on the tower in order to observe whether the bears did not violate the borders.
So now looks the final configuration of the station. It is a pity that they didn’t put it this way at the very beginning of the construction.
This experience led to several important conclusions:
1. Carefully study the meteorological data, as well as listen to local residents who have at least some information about the area.
2. Calculate the angle of inclination of the panels, taking into account the most adverse weather conditions.
3. Understand that shipping costs can sometimes be more than high.
4. On any long trip, bring more repellents with you (in warm time).
And the main, perhaps, conclusion - electricity and communications can be obtained anywhere, there would be a desire and the necessary amount of finance. Russia has yet to master a lot of uninhabited regions, and strengthen many sections of the border. And the experience that now manages to accumulate can be a good basis. The path of mistakes is not yet a few meters, and it is not known what lies ahead. Nevertheless, we are more than positively tuned, and the following solutions and stations will only be steeper.
Briefly about us: we are engaged in alternative energy since 2008, mainly solar.
The Republic of Altai, in which we mainly develop our activities, is quite a mountainous territory, and there are still plenty of places where there is no cellular connection. One of such places is Turochaksky district, in which mainly mountains, forest and deaf taiga. Nevertheless, people live here, despite the fact that electricity is generated by diesel generators, there is not much work, and there are even more favorable conditions for business.
')
A year ago (in 2013), we received a proposal to build an autonomous solar power station to power the cellular transponder. The customer was the district administration, and the regional branch Vimpelcom took over the direct connection. The engineers of this company are highly qualified specialists and just great guys. Cooperation with them took place in a very benevolent and constructive manner. We enthusiastically responded to this proposal, and began to work out solutions. What came out of it, read under the cut.
Start
In a nutshell, the task lay ahead: to build a solar station on top of one of the mountains, to power the repeater, which transmitted a signal from the base station in the village where the BS is connected to the optics. The target community hid behind this mountain, was powered by electricity from diesel generators, and there was no connection from Soviet times.
What was required to do:
1. 48 V DC system
2. The capacity of the battery should be enough for 10 days of telecommunications equipment.
3. You need a warm room, with the support of a certain temperature range for the installation of batteries, controllers, 19 "racks and communication equipment.
4. Fencing (although we still doubt whether the bear will break this fence)
The main problem faced is the delivery to the place of deployment.
The top of the mountain Tash-Chertog had no access roads. therefore, there was only one way out - to load everything onto a tiller tractor, and to make it to the top.
Below is a piece from a Google maps map, which schematically shows the starting points.
The coordinates indicate the top of the mountain Tash-Chertog, on which the station is installed.
07/01/2013 All the preparations were made, the transport was loaded and we hit the road. Which turned out to be very difficult, the distance to the top was 6 km, but the skidding tractor twice broke the tracks, for the third time something flowed from him, and finally, for the fourth time, after spending 6 hours, we found ourselves.
Preparing the platform for download
Go!
Stuck like this, sometimes even worse.
Anyway, everyone is alive and well, got to the place and began work.
First stage. Marking the territory under the fence, marking the places under the "tables" for solar panels, with orientation to the south.
Spin piles under it all.
They put the fence, began to mount the tables under the solar panels.
Further painting of metal structures and installation of solar modules on the tables.
General view of the installed panels.
Then they erected a container for equipment, battery, webasto and other trifles. Standard frame construction with insulation, nothing special.
The container is built, insulated, protected and ready to accept batteries, charge controllers and other equipment.
We are assembling a 48 volt system - 6 clusters of 4 batteries of 12 V. To the wall we fasten the Morningstar MPPT 60A charge controllers 3 pcs.
Particular attention should be paid to the choice of cable cross-section and contact points at the battery terminals, in order to avoid heating.
Next, set the fuel tank for Webasto
In the meantime, VimpelCom engineers installed their rack with equipment.
Some common types of solar station and repeater.
Station from the height of the repeater
General form. In the photo, our engineers.
Perhaps someone will be interested in the landscape from the top of the mountain. The views are beautiful and harsh. There are plenty of bears around.
System in operation
By 07.15.2013, the station was launched, and by 1.09.2013, in the village of Biika, a mobile connection started. The Internet has also appeared, but only in GPRS / EDGE mode, but 3G will be deployed in the near future, according to Beeline’s engineers.
Until the beginning of December 2013, the system worked stably and did not cause trouble until power outages appeared. It turned out that the meteorological data received on the snow cover turned out to be incorrect, and almost all of the station’s fence fell down with snow, the panels fell asleep and the snow did not have time to stay — the batteries practically didn’t walk, the short sunny day also affected the trees. - autumn season. It was decided to promptly fix the problems that had arisen, and we again gathered on a business trip.
During the work there was a decision to install the panels vertically so that the snow in any case could not cover the panels. Also, with the permission of the Ministry of Forestry, the tops of interfering trees were slightly sawed. According to foresters, there is nothing deadly in this, and the trees are safe.
Some photos from this trip:
This picture appeared before us on arrival.
In the meantime, they installed an outdoor IP video camera and mounted it on the tower in order to observe whether the bears did not violate the borders.
So now looks the final configuration of the station. It is a pity that they didn’t put it this way at the very beginning of the construction.
Results
This experience led to several important conclusions:
1. Carefully study the meteorological data, as well as listen to local residents who have at least some information about the area.
2. Calculate the angle of inclination of the panels, taking into account the most adverse weather conditions.
3. Understand that shipping costs can sometimes be more than high.
4. On any long trip, bring more repellents with you (in warm time).
And the main, perhaps, conclusion - electricity and communications can be obtained anywhere, there would be a desire and the necessary amount of finance. Russia has yet to master a lot of uninhabited regions, and strengthen many sections of the border. And the experience that now manages to accumulate can be a good basis. The path of mistakes is not yet a few meters, and it is not known what lies ahead. Nevertheless, we are more than positively tuned, and the following solutions and stations will only be steeper.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/216379/
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