Added value of life cycle assessment to a business case analysis of a photovoltaic/wind radio base site solution in South Africa

The aim of a new site solution concept (i-Site) has been to optimize energy costs, speed of deployment, and site equipment such as number of PV modules. The present study provides the first example of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) quantifying the future environmental benefit of i-Site for support of a radio base station in South African Vodafone network. This study will moreover show the business value of LCA by comparing the total cost of operation (TCO) with and without the knowledge from the LCA study. After carrying out the LCA it could be confirmed that the environmental loadings and potential environmental impacts should decrease when changing from traditional Site (t-Site) to i-Site. Especially avoidance of diesel combustion and the electricity efficient air cooling solution for i-Site (loop thermosyphone and DC Fan) and are behind these positives. The payback times for energy and CO₂ are reasonable. Error analyses were performed and the robustness of the results was confirmed. The effect on the financial payback time results of added CO₂ costs beyond increased diesel/electricity costs is a 2% reduction. For current means of transportation and mains electricity it will not be enough to focus on cost reductions in order to reduce CO₂ emissions. Still overall the life cycle eco-efficiency is around 4 times higher for the i-Site.