Focus on Arts and Ecology

 The big environmental stories in the Chinese media this week (7-13 August)

A recent public report on China Unicom 5G infrastructure in Luoyang city, Henan province, highlights a critical roadblock in 5G rollout – the huge electricity consumption of base stations.
 
China Tower, the state-owned company building much of China’s new 5G infrastructure, told Jiemian News that a single 5G base station can consume up to three times more electricity than a 4G station, a figure also acknowledged in a 2019 Huawei white paper on the 5G “power challenge”.

5G coverage also requires a greater density of base stations than 4G. According to Yang Fengyi, deputy director of the China Telecommunications Technology Innovation Centre, if 5G infrastructure is expanded to match current 4G coverage, total electricity consumption could increase nine-fold.
 
Discussions around the issue this week primarily focused on the increased operating costs faced by 5G base station operators. A forecast cited by Jiemian News predicts that by 2022 total annual electricity costs for 5G base stations could be as much as 75 billion yuan (US$10 billion). That will significantly eat into the annual profits of China’s three telecommunications operators, which in 2018 totalled 243 billion yuan. 
 
Such a large increase in electricity consumption would have obvious emissions impacts too, especially with China’s electricity generation being dominated by fossil fuels. Coal, for example, accounted for over 70% of electricity generation in the first half of 2020. How the power mix changes over the period of the next Five Year Plan, which is due to be finalised early next year, could have an impact on mitigating 5G emissions.
 
Others posit that the new possibilities 5G will open up for smart tech in everything from electric vehicles to household appliances will in fact help reduce global emissions.
 
Read more about the emissions challenge of 5G infrastructure and data centres on China Dialogue here.