At present, carbon neutrality has become the most urgent and critical mission in the world, and more than 120 countries and regions have clearly put forward the goal of carbon neutrality. With the continuous expansion of the commercial scale of 5G, carbon emissions are becoming a severe challenge for the development of ICT industry. Recently, at the 2021 China Information and Communication Industry Development Forum, ZTE focused on the strategic goal of "double carbon" to help the industry save energy and reduce emissions, and put forward the concept of "zero carbon" energy network and related solutions.
"Long before the national goal of’ double carbon’ was put forward, ZTE has been committed to helping operators and customers build green and low-carbon communication network technical facilities. Nowadays, it is regarded as one of the company’s core strategies for sustainable development. While practicing its own low-carbon development, it will green empower more industries for energy conservation and emission reduction. " Liu Mingming, vice president of ZTE, said in an interview.
It is understood that ZTE will also release a "zero-carbon" energy network white paper in the near future to deeply analyze the "zero-carbon" energy network.
What is a "zero carbon" energy network?
ZTE Zero-Carbon Energy network is a constructive concept and solution proposed by ZTE for the goal of "double carbon".
By September, 2021, there were about 1.15 million 5G base stations in China. According to July, 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Central Network Information Office and other ten departments issued the Action Plan for Sailing the Application of 5G (2021-2023). By 2023, there will be more than 18 5G base stations per 10,000 people, and it is estimated that the number of 5G base stations in China will exceed 2.54 million by the end of 2023.
But as we all know, 5G base stations and data centers are big energy consumers. With the development of new information infrastructure such as "Double Gigabit", more and more 5G base stations, edge data centers and large data centers are deployed. If the traditional network energy technology is adopted, it means more energy consumption. Therefore, a pair of contradictions are placed in front of major operators. It is necessary to accelerate the construction of infrastructure such as 5G base stations, but also to take into account the green mission of energy conservation and emission reduction. How to take care of both has become the key to the problem.
The "zero-carbon" energy network proposed by ZTE integrates many new technologies, such as 5G, Internet of Things, cloud computing, AI, etc., and changes the traditional network energy technology and construction mode, which can help operators to transform their networks into low-carbon and zero-carbon digital intelligence.

It mainly includes three-layer architecture: the product technology layer mainly includes low-carbon and zero-carbon key technologies such as intelligent photovoltaic-green power generation, intelligent conversion-high-efficiency power conversion, intelligent lithium battery-high-efficiency power storage, intelligent power distribution-accurate power supply, intelligent temperature control-extremely low power consumption; The comprehensive scheme layer includes a full-scenario zero-carbon solution of minimalist site, green computer room and prefabricated full-module data center, which reconstructs the new form of network energy infrastructure and realizes the low-carbon and zero-carbon deployment and operation of operator network from access to convergence to core; Energy cloud management is continuously optimized through a unified network energy management platform based on big data and AI technology, further improving the energy efficiency and operation and maintenance efficiency of the whole network.
Comprehensive Energy Saving: End-to-end Full Energy Chain
Liu Mingming said: "Under the trend of global carbon neutrality, ZTE has shifted from paying attention to network energy consumption to paying more attention to green power applications, network energy efficiency and intelligent operation and maintenance." ZTE has been deeply cultivating key technologies such as intelligent photovoltaic, intelligent conversion, intelligent lithium battery, intelligent power distribution, intelligent temperature control, etc., so that the "zero carbon" energy network covers all links of power generation, power conversion, power storage, power distribution and electricity consumption, and realizes the comprehensive energy saving of the end-to-end full energy chain.
At the 2021 China Information and Communication Industry Development Forum, ZTE released a new generation of intelligent power supply UniPower. The intelligent power supply, based on a 1×2U module architecture, includes 3kW/4kW rectifier module, solar power module, 57V bidirectional conversion module, 280V high-voltage DC booster module and intelligent power distribution module, which realizes the functions of flexible hybrid insertion of all series modules, multi-type energy input and multi-mode output, intelligent parallel connection of existing and old power supplies, intelligent peak shaving without mains power transformation, remote supply of 280V high-voltage DC and intelligent power distribution.
With the acceleration of 5G network construction by operators, the power consumption of 5G equipment has generally increased significantly. As a newly defined architecture of 5G power supply, UniPower has four characteristics: minimal and efficient, fully modular, intelligent and networked, which can meet the needs of rapid installation, smooth expansion, high efficiency and energy saving, and simple operation and maintenance, and effectively solve various challenges encountered by operators in 5G construction and operation.
In addition to the development of the 5G network power supply system, ZTE also covers the different needs of multiple scenarios.
In terms of effective utilization of green power resources, ZTE has launched an intelligent photovoltaic system, including DC superposition and AC superposition. For outdoor sites and site computer rooms, the rectification module of power supply system and solar power module can be freely mixed, or the solar power box can be directly installed to realize the DC superposition transformation; Aiming at the core computer room or data center, AC superposition is realized by grid-connected inverter, and the optimization of green power supply and redundant internet access is realized.
In terms of energy saving in data centers, ZTE constantly explores new energy-saving technologies, and helps operators and customers realize energy saving and emission reduction in data centers from indirect evaporative cooling air conditioning, liquid cooling technology, improving the energy efficiency of power systems and integrating AI artificial intelligence algorithms into energy efficiency management in data centers. At present, ZTE’s AI-based data center energy-saving technology, through continuous optimization iteration, can bring about an 8% improvement in energy efficiency, which won the "Best Energy-saving Solution Award" at the 2020 IDC Industry Awards.
In the development of intelligent lithium battery, the ordinary lithium battery provided by most manufacturers in the current industry is packaged by simple BMS (Battery Management System) and batteries, and its application scenarios are limited. Based on the research and development of core technologies such as power conversion, BMS, structure and heat dissipation, and cloud management, ZTE integrated the world’s top batteries and launched SmartLi smart lithium battery. SmartLi intelligent lithium battery has innovative functions such as intelligent mixing, boosting, parallel operation, peak shifting, anti-theft and cloud management, which can meet the comprehensive scheme application of network full-scene power supply, fully tap the value of energy storage in the whole life cycle, and maximize the use of green electricity or commercial power.
Today, ZTE SmartLi intelligent lithium battery has been widely used in the global communication market. No matter in the island countries with high humidity and high salt fog, or in the countries with hot and severe power shortage, or in the countries that have built the 5G network on a large scale, the stable operation of SmartLi has been tested by the market.
Smart carbon reduction, facing the future
New technologies such as 5G and AI can transform the traditional network energy infrastructure into digitalization and intelligence, and realize the interconnection, management and scheduling of the whole energy chain from power generation to electricity consumption. The station, computer room and data center are not only a high-speed data communication network, but also an efficient energy supply network.
In the future, ZTE will continue to research and apply new carbon reduction technologies around "green energy, energy saving, energy storage and intelligence" and strive to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality.
According to Liu Mingming, in terms of green energy, in addition to continuously improving the efficiency and unit cost of the current solar energy solutions for sites and data centers, we will also study the application of other clean energy technologies in the network, such as hydrogen energy; In terms of energy saving, ZTE will continue to study more simple and efficient power supply architecture and solutions to improve site energy efficiency and data center energy efficiency; In terms of energy storage, in addition to the current intelligent lithium battery energy storage, new batteries such as sodium ions and other new energy storage technologies, such as flywheel energy storage, will be introduced; In terms of intelligence, it will further enhance the intelligent level of energy management and help the network to be more energy-efficient and efficient.
















































