Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellular

Solving
wind energy’s
connectivity
challenge:
The case for LTE
and 5G cellular

September 20221

Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellularWind energy is on the upswing. The Global
Wind Energy Council predicts that the global
wind energy market will grow at a rate of
8.5 percent annually, eventually making up
nearly 70 percent of all renewable power
production. To capitalize on the potentialof wind energy, we must solve multiple
challenges, from scaling the distance tothe remote locations of wind farms toefficiently and safely operating, monitoring,
maintaining and servicing the turbines.
Connectivity is critical for a wide range of
purposes, including monitoring and control,
communications between on- and offsite
workers and the day-to-day welfare of
employees at the sites. LTE/5G cellular
networks provide the necessary coverage,
reliability and reach along with the low
latency, throughput and scale required for
current and future wind farm use cases.

Table of contents
03 Introduction
04 A growing opportunity, withconsiderable challenges
05 3GPP-based cellular networks
answer wind energy’s needs
06 LTE/5G characteristics and how
they apply to wind farms
09 The value of a single underlying
standard
10 LTE/5G solves many wind industry
challenges
13 Conclusion

September 20222

Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellular

September 2022

Introduction
According to the International Energy
Agency (IEA), energy decarbonization is
being driven by renewable energy generation,accounting for almost 90 percent of power
producers’ portfolios by 2050.1 Wind energy
will be an important factor in this transition,with offshore wind making up the majorityof new wind power capacity awarded.
The sustained growth that is forecasted
and desired for wind energy will require astrong communications network. Robust
cellular-based, 3GPP standards-driven,
wireless connectivity will be a key factor for
keeping these complex, costly projects onschedule, on budget, safe and productive—
while also achieving long-term Levelized
Cost of Energy (LCOE) that is competitive
with non-renewables.

At a height of 13 to 16 stories and a wingspan as wide as a football field, a wind turbine canbe quite magnificent.

1

https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050

3

Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellular

September 2022

A growing opportunity, withconsiderable challenges
Today, wind energy represents about 9
percent of the electricity mix in the US2 andapproximately 7 percent of the electricity mix
around the world.3 That may not sound large,
but it’s significant: The U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA) tweeted that wind
generation, at 2,000GWh in a 24-hour period,
was the second-largest producer of electricity
for the US after natural gas.4 The Global Wind
Energy Council predicted that from 2020 to2024, the global wind energy market is
expected to grow at rate of 8.5 percent annually,
with China and US leading those installations.5
In the US, at least 20 wind farms are planned
across the Atlantic seaboard.6
Wind and solar power both hit milestones
globally in recent months: The two combined
contributed 10 percent of global electricity forthe first time in 2021. This figure rises to 38
percent when taking all clean energy sources

into account.7 Wind energy continues to bea key piece to the global answer to climatechange. Wind farms and their construction,
ongoing maintenance and operational needs
are ever more important to the energy industry
and to the global targets set forth by various
governments for sustainability and net zero.
To capitalize on the potential of windenergy, we must solve multiple challenges.
Wind farms are typically located in remote,underserved rural areas within the country,
or tens of miles offshore where access towireline telecommunications is generally
unavailable or prohibitively expensive todeploy. Reliable communications are critical
not only during the construction phase, butalso for ongoing monitoring and control,
safety, servicing, training and maintenance aswell as the day-to-day welfare of workers at
the sites.

The communication network, in fact, is theunderpinning to the entire system, enabling
multiple use cases beyond traditional
operations. Operations teams could gather
information from nearby sensors that aremeasuring wind, humidity and emerging
weather patterns and act to prevent costly
and dangerous damage to the equipment
or injury to workers. Safety teams could
monitor their workers remotely for risk ofheat or cold exposure, high heart rate andexact location, among other attributes.
A capable and robust wireless systemthat can scale the required distances withresilience and performance would be part ofa wind farm’s end-to-end communication
system for multiple applications such as
voice, video and data.

https://cleanpower.org/facts/wind-power/
https://wwindea.org/worldwide-wind-capacity-reaches-744-gigawatts/
4
https://www.yahoo.com/news/in-a-first-wind-power-is-second-leading-us-source-of-electricity-in-one-day-220541187.html
5https://www.energylivenews.com/2020/11/09/wind-energy-industry-set-for-continued-growth-in-the-next-five-years-despite-covid-19/
6https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2021-08/Offshore%20Wind%20Market%20Report%202021%20Edition_Final.pdf
7
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/tech-accelerating-wind-energy-revolution-190000783.html
234Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellular

September 2022

5

3GPP-based cellular networks
answer wind energy’s needs
In this paper, we examine how cellular-based,
3GPP standards-driven communication
networks offer a singular solution for the windfarm industry. 3GPP is the accepted standard
that billions of people around the world rely
on for personal, business and critical industry
communications. While other technologies,
such as Tetra for two-way voice communicationand Long Range Radio Wide-Area Network(LoRaWAN) for Internet of Things (IoT)
sensors have a place in industrial enterprises,
cellular communication is uniquely qualified
to be the foundational wireless connectivity
for the wind industry.
In addition to providing both coverage andreach, cellular provides strong built-in security
measures, generation of high throughput,

low latency and adaptability to existing
technologies including LoRaWAN and Wi-Fi.
More importantly, cellular-based technology
benefits from a well-developed ecosystem
built around a single standard. The windindustry shares many of the same applications—drones, IoT sensor connectivity, connected
workers and cameras—already in use by peerindustries such as manufacturing, oil and gas
and logistics.
We will explore multiple facets of the role
cellular-based communication can play in thewind energy industry.
First, we look at the performance
characteristics of cellular communications
technologies, specifically around security,
throughput, latencies and existing connectivity

adaptability. In addition to spelling out thosecharacteristics, we’ll compare and contrast it
with existing technologies in use, including
LoRaWAN (LoRa) and Wi-Fi, to provide
perspective (see Figure 1).
Next, we further examine the benefits ofa single standard and the enablement that
it affords to the industry. An establishedstandard would allow the industry to focus on
the “stuff it does best,” the production of clean
energy.
Lastly, we define the many challenges
that face wind farms, both onshore andoffshore. We discuss how various cellularbased use cases can specifically help solve
those challenges.

Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellular

September 2022

6

5G/LTE characteristics and how
they apply to wind farms
Marketing and advertisements constantly
remind us that 5G is all around us. One may
ask, what is 5G exactly? To your teenage sonor daughter, the concept of 5G might bewatching the latest YouTube video or
uploading the latest Tik-Tok video for theirfriends. To them, 5G is all about throughput
speeds and ensuring that a video won’t buffer
as they are enjoying or creating it. The focus,
for these consumers, is the downlink anduplink attributes, where 5G technologies
can significantly outperform current LTE
commercial capabilities.
Increased connectivity and smart automation
are enabling manufacturing, logistics andother industries to evolve into a new era
we’re calling Industry 4.0.8 For Industry 4.0,
4G/LTE and 5G provide crucial advantages
beyond faster throughput. Industrial use
cases such as wind farms have more varied
use cases and more stringent requirements
than consumer applications:• a high level of security• Quality of Service (QoS)• reliability• latency• coverage and reach• the ability to scale

Dedicated to digital transformation:
Industry 4.0 will be built on dedicatedprivate networks
Private networks are powering
innovation across all industries, allowing
businesses to unlock exponential
growth. 5G was designed specificallywith the IoT in mind. Only highperformance private networks canprovide the robust, reliable connectivity
required to suit any need and use case,both today and tomorrow. Mining,
manufacturing, ports, airports, power
utilities and offshore and processing
industries are just some of the industries
innovating new capabilities withdedicated private networks.

5G and 4G/LTE are both based on the Third
Generation Partnership Program (3GPP),
which is the global cellular-based standard.
Though 4G/LTE and 5G are technicallydifferent, they are cut from the same cloth.
The standards have been written to allow
graceful coexistence and upgrade capabilities

for those using cellular-based products. Some
network equipment vendors, including Ericsson,and most ecosystem device manufacturers
make their products compatible to both. Thisis especially important for wind farm IT
managers who need to consider future-proofing
when planning for their infrastructure.

Seamless mobility• Cellular has standardized mobility features reducing outage timeclose to zero ms in Rel-16.
• Cellular provides better mobility because of more sophisticated link
adaptation within base station coverage area.

QoS support and performance• Cellular networks have sophisticated traffic shaping and QoScapabilities where packet delay budgets, error rates and guaranteed
bit rates can be configured.
• The mechanisms are designed to work at high load throughadmission control and preemption.

Predictable latency• Cellular provides low and predictable latency and is robust tovarying network loads.
• Cellular technologies provide adequate support for Industrial IoT,
such as Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN).

Security/Trustworthy• Cellular products undergo extensive testing for most standardized
functionality, including performance.
• Cellular provides a full security stack, encryption and access control
per device.

Spectrum and efficiency• Cellular technologies use licensed spectrum.
• Cellular technology has higher spectral efficiency yielding highcapacity.

Figure 1: Benefits of cellular and its characteristics

8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Industrial_Revolution

Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellular

Security
Let’s start with some of the commonalities
between LTE and 5G that make them ideal
for the wind industry. First and foremostis security. Security is especially importantbecause the wind industry, as an electricity
provider, is part of the national infrastructure,requiring heightened security measures. LTE
and 5G networks are designed with security
embedded in the 3GPP standards that govern
these technologies, including device and user.
Encryption and security keys can only be
deciphered through the physical presence ofa SIM card on the user device. The physicalpossession of the SIM cards would reside with
the IT staff of the farm.
Control protocols are separated from user
data, and advanced firewalls protect thecore against unauthorized access or denialof service. Private network deployments canalso be completely independent of the public
4G/5G network offered by public cellular
service providers, creating a closed system.
LTE and 5G networks, through private networkarchitectural deployments, are completely
self-contained within the wind farm’s IT
network, protecting the wind farm’s wirelessnetwork from exposure to attack throughmultiple paths or vulnerable access points.
Quality of Service and reliability
A second characteristic that stands out for
LTE and 5G technologies is reliability andservice guarantees. This includes the ability
to enable end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS)
assignments to different services and streams
within the LTE/5G network. With deterministicscheduling and QoS controls within theframework of the 3GPP standard, LTE and5G technologies can adjust for the relative
importance of services representing various
use cases to prioritize one over the otherduring periods of congestion.9
Figure 2 shows the scheduling mechanism
differences between licensed cellular
technology like LTE and 5G versus unlicensed
technologies like Wi-Fi. Additionally,guaranteeing the reliability or robustness ofa particular connection is also built into thestandard, with various checkpoints observed
to keep survivability of the data transmission.
Both characteristics are especially importantin critical communications services andapplications like voice communications orMission-Critical Push-To-Talk (MCPTT).

September 2022

LTE and 5G communications can provide
prioritized voice services in the form of Voiceover LTE (VoLTE) and MCPTT communicationsin addition to high-speed data. VoLTE provides
the dial-up voice capability we are all very
familiar with, and MCPTT gives us the groupchat, business-style communication that is
predominantly used in many industries andhistorically referred to as “two-way radio”
services.
The wind energy industry typically deploys
separate two-way radio systems, such as
TETRA and Land Mobile Radio (LMR) for its
voice communication. Wind farm operators
must ensure that voice communication takes
precedent on the wireless network, whichis shared by traffic such as video feed fromcameras, IoT device communication andother application traffic. As a comparison
from public wireless networks, consider thevoice capability used in cell phones. It is
designed as a prioritized service over the LTE
network, more familiarly called VoLTE, andincorporates higher standards of bothreliability and prioritization.10 The VoLTE
traffic takes precedent over the rest of trafficsuch as YouTube or internet surfing traffic.
Public safety departments, like police andfire, similarly prioritize voice over LTE and 5G
public cellular networks. The traffic generated
from these first responder departments takes
precedent over the traffic of citizen mobile
users.11 Vendors like Ericsson have made itvery simple for an IT department’s wirelesspersonnel to be able to select and configure
these prioritized services within their private
network solutions to meet business andsafety needs for wind farm operations.

Licensed Spectrum• Higher transmit power
and full control overtransmissions• Baseband is aware of
all the devices,
provides central
coordination and fairresource allocation.
• Enables more connected
devices and reliability.
• Guarantees predictablelatency

7

With LTE and 5G, these services can expand
beyond the standard walkie-talkie voice,offering users the ability to switch from voice
to video conferencing and other more dynamic
applications because the network affords theability to prioritize voice services across the
network while leveraging additional bandwidth
for adjacent services on PTT. A dedicatednetwork for voice is unnecessary; rather, it isjust one of many other applications that rides
on the foundation of an LTE/5G network.
Peak throughput speeds
The third advantage of LTE and 5G standards
is throughput. Top LTE speeds can get up to
2Gbps, as demonstrated by Ericsson in
February 2018, in cooperation with Ericsson’s
customer provider Telstra, chipset maker
Qualcomm and device maker Netgear.12 In
comparison, top 5G download speeds were
demonstrated at close to 6Gbps, utilizing
millimeter wave (mmW) spectrum.13 Millimeterwave spectrum is spectrum that is above
6Ghz. For US frequencies, this typicallycorresponds to spectrum in the 24Ghz, 28Ghz
and 39Ghz bands.
The 5G technology specification was built
specifically to take advantage of this categoryof spectrum and the abundance of channels
and channel spacing in this range. The 5G
standard is expected to ultimately get to
top upload speeds of 10Gbps and download
speeds of 20Gbps with future advancementsin the 5G 3GPP specification.14 By cutting time
to download, transport and upload data, thesedata rates can deliver significant time and costsavings to corporations and enterprises.

Unlicensed Spectrum
Need totransmit

VS

Transmit• Lower transmit power
and little control overtransmissions• Regulation mandates:
Devices must listen
before transmit.
• Performance degradeswith more devices
as devices compete fortransmission time.
• No guarantees andunpredictable latency

Need totransmit

Yes

Anyone elsetransmitting?
No

Transmit

Figure 2: Scheduling: LTE and 5G cellular technology versus Wi-Fi

5G NR QoS (Quality of Service) | 5G QoS as per 3GPP NR Standard (rfwireless-world.com)
https://www.ericsson.com/49d361/assets/local/reports-papers/white-papers/wp-voice-and-video-calling-over-lte.pdf
11https://www.firstnet.com/coverage/qpp.html
12https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2018/2/telstra-ericsson-qualcomm-and-netgear-achieve-2gbps-speeds-in-live-demo
13
https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2/2022/5/vi-records-top-download-speed-of-5.92-gbps-during-the-ongoing-5g-trials-in-pune
14
https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/white-papers/5g-wireless-access-an-overview
910Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellularSome industrial applications could require
these high rates of speed. For example,
lacking wireless, wind farms often manuallytransfer large amounts of data on a USB stickor storage device from one point to another—
an inefficient and expensive method.15 In
offshore environments, that data has to betransported via ships and ferry, requiring
complicated logistics scheduling and expense.
LTE and 5G’s high throughput capability
would enable real-time data transfer, at little
extra cost.
Now, let’s compare this to Wi-Fi. A Wi-Fi 5
system tops out at 3.5Gbps. Wi-Fi 6 is expected
to get to a theoretical ~10Gbps16, which
would be similar to 5G peak speeds. Wi-Fi
spectrum, however, is very much public andubiquitous, with a significant risk ofinterference from other nearby Wi-Fi systems
and users. With LTE and 5G, the devices on
the private cellular network system within awind farm, such as smart phones, IoT
sensors, cameras, drones and gateways, don’tnecessarily share the 4G or 5G spectrum withnearby systems and their respective users.
They don’t face the possibilities of encroachmentfrom other nearby networks.
A wind farm with cellular-based LTE and5G private networks would most likely use
licensed or lightly licensed spectrum, like
Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS),
and therefore be better protected than it
would be with Wi-Fi spectrum. For onshore
deployments of private cellular networks onlegacy and new wind farms, CBRS could be
an excellent choice to achieve peak speeds ofover 100Mbps in the downlink. Additionally,
LTE already works on CBRS, with many
private networks already deployed for a few
years. Ericsson is in the midst of helping test
5G on CBRS with some of its customers andthe technology will be available soon.17
Coverage and reach
Another significant characteristic of LTE/5G
networks is its reach. Cellular-based networks
are typically defined to transmit a considerable
amount of power to reach the end device
destination, expanding coverage to the windfarm using fewer towers than other highspeed technologies. Whereas Wi-Fi technology
was designed as a Local Area Network (LAN)technology, with limited power output andtherefore limited distance, typical findings
show that a typical CBRS-based LTE node

provides the same coverage area as four
equivalent Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) nodes.18
We must consider not only the costs of theequipment like the Wi-Fi APs and LTE nodes
themselves, but the cost of the services todeploy these nodes as well. This includes
climbing towers and integrating each node,
as well as the cost of the towers and poles
themselves. Moreover, LTE networks may befaster to deploy, since fewer towers and radiotransmit points are needed on the premises.
To reach equipment and nodes like turbinesthat are more than a few hundred feet away,
wind operators have relied on point-to-point
communication via microwave hops. These
are individualized links, with dishes andelectronics equipment on either end of thelink to form the data transmission connection.
Cellular can potentially eliminate the need toestablish these links. Deploying a microwave
point-to-point solution can cost tens of
thousands of dollars. In contrast, a simple LTE
or 5G device at the end point node locations
can establish a similar type of data connection
for no more than a few hundred dollars,
incrementally.
Cellular reach technology can especiallycome in handy when a wind farm wants toestablish new turbines for the farm or expand
the farm farther into adjacent lands or waters(in the case of offshore). Some of thisexpansion could possibly be accommodatedwith existing LTE or 5G radio infrastructure
already in place. Alternatively, the wind
operator can add a single radio expansion, ora limited few, that can point towards the new
expanded areas and instantly cover many
turbines. Adding LTE or 5G-based radios to an
existing network would be similar to adding
Long Range Radio (LoRa), Wi-Fi or TETRA
Access Points.

September 2022

8

efficient scheduling of the resources of the airinterface. In Figure 3, the illustration shows
how latency can be affected with higher data
tonnage loads.
Applications in wind farms that can benefit
from lower latencies include machine control
for things like protection relays, high voltage
transformer monitoring, breakers andreclosers and load shedding, along with field
services-enablement applications such as
drone control and payload, security andsurveillance cameras, MCPTT and connected
worker streaming live feeds for remote expertise.

Wi-Fi

4G

5G
Latency
Lastly, many of the use cases on a wind farmrequire not only high speeds but also low
latency. LTE can typically provide a realistic
best latency of about 20ms. 5G is expected toprovide latencies close to 2ms and even 1ms.19
Wi-Fi, in ideal conditions, can provide
latencies similar to 5G. More often than not,Wi-Fi can get saturated, and the resulting
buffer usage can lead to much longer latency
times. Here, again, the more deterministic
nature of the standards written for LTE and5G can help with latency thanks to more

Figure 3: The move towards 5G and effects
on network latency

https://www.tp-link.com/us/blog/100/what-is-10gbe-and-what-can-you-do-with-it-/https://www.minim.com/blog/wifi-4-vs-wifi-5-vs-wifi-6
17https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-5g-ultra-wideband-availability-cbrs-spectrum
18https://www.minim.com/blog/wifi-4-vs-wifi-5-vs-wifi-6
19https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/mobile/inspired/5G#:~:text=5G%20technology%20offers%20an%20
extremely,1%2F1000%20of%20a%20second
1516Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellular

September 2022

9

The value of a single underlying
standard
These are some of the most common
characteristics of LTE and 5G systems incontrast to more universally understoodtechnologies such as LoRa and Wi-Fi. Today,
most applications in wind industry may be
perfectly suited for the characteristics that atypical LTE system can provide. As the industry
communications ecosystem continues to push
the limits of capabilities of devices andapplications, 5G cellular connectivity will
become more and more required in thesefarms. Let’s take look at other reasons theindustry should coalesce around a single
cellular wireless standard.
Scale
A single standard, specifically one based on
cellular, will allow the wind industry to takeadvantage of the large scale of the cellular
IoT and enterprise-based ecosystem thatserves many different industries. Most
importantly, wind farm owners would be able
to take advantage of a lower cost per unit on
things like end devices, given the scale of thecellular ecosystem. This ecosystem includes
chipset makers, device makers, module
makers, application, software providers and
3GPP network equipment vendors like Ericsson.
Many of the components, software andproducts made by these different segments
are reused across various industries likemining, manufacturing, oil and gas andlogistics. The wind industry can reuse manyof these devices, from gateways, IoT sensors
and cameras to tablets and phones. Even
better, this ecosystem includes not only
industrial, but also ordinary consumer devices.
According to Statista, in 2022 there are 15
billion cellphone-based devices expected to
be deployed.20 Many of the Industrial IoT and
gateway devices share chipsets with
consumer-based phones. The wind industry
can take advantage of this scale, benefitingfrom the higher quality and lower costs.

the mass scale of the ecosystem, it will also
allow the wind industry and those who support
it to focus on research and development ofwind industry-specific applications anddevices. For instance, having readily available
off-the-shelf modules and chipsets could
allow a new and upcoming start-up device
maker to focus on orienting elements of its
design and application to the requirements
related to wind turbines.
If there were two or three or even four
competing but similar standards options forconnectivity, the start-up device maker would
have to expend extra effort to research,evaluate and then implement for each ofthese different connectivity standards. Having
one standard lets device makers spend lesstime on connectivity and more on core windindustry requirements, saving resources andcosts and freeing firms to pursue other
innovations. There are other advantages, too,such as higher quality and greater variety of
products to choose from in the marketplace.
Let’s learn from the past
We’ve seen the importance of having a single
standard before. Take VHS versus BetaMax.
When the industry chose VHS over BetaMax,

Focusing resources
Uniting around a single standard will not only
bring cost efficiencies by taking advantage of20

https://www.statista.com/statistics/245501/multiple-mobile-device-ownership-worldwide/

video player companies like Panasonic andSony were able to focus their business rather
than splitting their efforts on competing
standards. Another example, closer to thesubject at hand, is LTE.
In the 1990s, a few wireless service providers
in the US market and others following the US
market deployed CDMA (Code Division Multiple
Access) technology for 2G standard, while therest of the world deployed GSM (Global System
for Mobile Communication). Initially, it wasdifficult for phones to work on both standards.
Even within the US, companies like AT&T
Wireless and T-Mobile were using GSM, while
Verizon and Sprint were using CDMA. Phonesof the AT&T and T-Mobile subscriber basewere not able to use Verizon and Sprint
coverage areas and vice versa.
That all changed with LTE. In late 2000s,
the world united on a single standard for
4G communications—LTE. As a result, life
became much simpler for device makers andchip makers supporting phones on international
carriers. A smaller amount of processing space
was required on the chips that went into
mobile devices. The lower cost of production
and design helped lower the cost of the final
device for the consumer.

Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellular

September 202210

LTE/5G solves many wind industry
challenges
While the wind farm industry is relatively
new, wind farms have actually been aroundfor over 40 years,21 Those in the US are a bitnewer, mostly built in the 1980s.22 A lot ofdevelopment and modernization have
happened since the mid-1970s when theearliest wind farms were planned anddeveloped. These modern windfarms aremuch more advanced and efficient today.
They also have many more requirements
than their predecessors to ensure they areoperationally as efficient as possible and thatthey are maximizing both the investment andthe potential of the energy harvested during
operation. Onshore and offshore environments
differ, as well. Specific use cases andcharacteristics might be more relevant for one
environment than for the other. In addition,requirements and characteristics change at
different phases of a wind farm’s life, fromconstruction to continuing operations andmaintenance to future deployments andgrowth, when newer, advanced technologies
will play a larger role.
Enhancing operations and maintenancewith LTE/5G connectivity
As we pointed out, wind farms are typicallylocated in rural areas within a country or
many tens of miles offshore, where access tocost-effective communication and wirelessconnectivity is a challenge.23 Over the courseof the life of a wind farm and its turbines,
utility employees and vendors who comprisethe turbine ecosystem will need to physically
visit for service calls. They must be able tocommunicate with their teams and theirsupervisors, access documentation andconsult with experts from the field as they
service and troubleshoot a turbine. Wind farmoperations staff must have connectivity to thewind turbines for maintenance, workflows
and record keeping–ensuring communications
can be even more challenging in the offshore
environments.

Onshore, a worker can usually drive to aparticular turbine and find at least limited
coverage by a Mobile Network Provider (MNO).
Offshore, however, there is no possibility ofcoverage from the major MNOs. Yet, connectivity
is even more critical for workers and staff,
who are deployed on offshore vessels for amonth or more at a time. They sleep, live andeat during their non-working hours in thesevessels. In addition to work-related
communications, reasonable recreational
connectivity becomes essential for employee
health and morale.
Many offshore vessels have satellite
communications, but satellite can sometimes
be too expensive or have significant
performance issues. Wind farm connectivity
based on private LTE/5G network connectivity,with the non-tariffed nature of privatearchitecture, provides the necessary
dedicated high throughput employees needand expect.

Keeping the workforce happy and efficientA typical LTE/5G private network deployment
utilizing spectrum in both low-band andmid-band can provide average sector speedsof roughly 300Mbps downlink and 75Mbps
uplink. Peak speeds could go up as high as
450Mbps/125Mbps uplink. Support vessels
can easily augment their external connectivity
from their satellite link communications toreadily available LTE gateways that connect
to their onboard IT infrastructure.
Onshore, wind farm operators could provide
workers with Wi-Fi hotspot or USB-related
devices that can convert from LTE (on theirprivate network) for an always-on connection
for work activities such as tablets for record
keeping, collecting information or downloading
documentation. The greater throughput could
handle the wide range of workforce enabling
technologies including phones, tablets andwalkie-talkie style two-way radio systems
used by the wind farm industry and manyother Industry 4.0 applications.

https://www.power-technology.com/analysis/oldest-operating-wind-turbine-tvindkraft/#:~:text=Wind%20turbines%20have%20an%20average,wind%20turbine%20in%20the%20world
22
https://www.palmspringslife.com/palm-springs-is-home-to-oldest-wind-farm-in-u-s/
23
https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/advantages-and-challenges-wind-energy#:~:text=Although%20wind%20power%20plants%20have,flying%20into%20spinning%20turbine%20blades21Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellular

Expanding the network’s reachIn addition to providing broadband forworkers, LTE and 5G networks in the middle
mile of the IT network ensure the reach of awind farm’s network with a common
connectivity platform. Sensors and monitoring
points on a wind turbine have varying
protocols, such as Bluetooth Low Energy(BLE) or Long Range Radio (LoRa), which
can all be connected via LTE gateways. These
protocols are designed to be “light,” meaningthat they help to save battery life, and offersome limited range.24 Cellular-based networks,
however, reach far greater distances on a
per-node basis. They can play a key role as a
middle mile network, or seen another way, as
an underlying wide area wireless connectivity
layer network. See Figure 4, which showssome of the differences between BLE, LoRaand LTE.
Instead of having to deploy a full LoRaor BLE network throughout the wind farm,now operators only need to deploy the LoRa
network and its gateways at the end points.
The wind farm operator can leverage the LTE
network to cover the distance from the central
portion of the network, where the servers are,to the individual turbines. This same principle
can apply to Bluetooth/BLE-enabled devices,
as well. Not limited to Bluetooth/BLE or LoRa,
the LTE ecosystem offers many different
conversion possibilities for end protocols.
Wi-Fi-enabled gateways are very popular in
LTE. Even extensions to the Ethernet system
can be offered with physical Ethernet
connector gateways, USB gateways andVoice, video and other media
communication
Voice communication—the simple act of
being able to talk to the larger team—is thelife blood of any business. LTE and 5G
communications have a few different options
for offering voice and Push-To-Talk (PTT)
communications. For basic voicecommunications, there is the VoLTE standard
used by the public networks today. This
service natively prioritizes the voice paththrough the entire LTE end-to-end network,over all the other types of communication.
PTT communication is the group chat,business-style communication predominantly
used in many industries, and historicallyreferred to as “two-way radio” services. WithLTE and 5G, this service can expand beyond
the standard walk-talkie voice. Because the
LTE network affords the ability to leverage
additional bandwidth for adjacent services
on PTT, users are able to switch from voice tovideo conferencing and other more dynamic
applications. Taking it a step further,
Mission-Critical Push-To-Talk prioritizes voiceover the rest of the traffic on the network.
Ericsson recently partnered with Southern
Linc, a private utility-based telecom provider

Attribute

Cellular-based
4G / 5G

LoRA

Bluetooth LE

Setup difficulty

Medium to Hard

Easy

Easy to Medium

Range

Longest Range

Medium to Long

Short

Battery life

Short to Medium

Long

Long

Data throughput

100Mbps – 1+Gbps

1kbps – 50kbps

10kbps – 1Mbps

Latency time

Low Latency

High Latency

Medium Latency

Security

High

High

Low

Spectrum usage

Assigned / Lightly
SharedPublic / Shared

Public / Sharedhttps://www.eseye.com/resources/iot-explained/lora-vs-cellular-for-iot/
https://www.ericsson.com/en/cases/2022/southern-linc-and-ericsson
26
https://www.airswift.com/blog/attracting-net-zero-workforce
25

11

RS232 gateways. All of these can be puton the LTE network for the middle mile andbrought back to the central IT facilities. In thisrole, cellular networks have the considerable
flexibility of both reach and adaptability toother existing, wireless-enabled protocols
that a typical wind farm may be using.

Figure 4: Connectivity: BLE versus LoRa versus LTE
24

September 2022

in the southern US, to launch the first dedicatedmission-critical LTE network in the US.25
LTE and 5G networks afford significant
flexibility to wind energy clients. Whether it’s
VoLTE-based, PTT or even an over-the-top
voice application like Voice-over-Internet
Protocol (VoIP), the voice service is just one
application of many that an LTE/5G network
can carry. The IT manager no longer needs tomaintain separate networks for voice, dataand other applications.
Training workers with Assisted and Virtual
reality (AR/VR)
In a rapidly developing industry like windenergy, training workers and keeping theirskills up to date are essential. The nature oftraining—and of work itself—has evolved
tremendously, accelerated by the pandemic.
Worker flexibility is key to attracting andretaining new talent.26 For wind farms, thatmeans considering new and more flexible
training approaches.
Assisted reality (AR) and Virtual reality(VR) technologies can help. Through AR/VR,
field technicians can easily engage remoteexperts for input and valuable information.
AR/VR headsets also allow remote and newhire workers to train with field techniciansby allowing them to be able to “see what I
see,” avoiding the high amount of cost, timeand resources it takes to transport workers to
offshore locations. Notably, these headsets
typically have an LTE modem externallyattached or in-built to the headsets.

Ericsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellularSensors and predictive maintenanceWind farms face unique operational andmaintenance challenges. Prime among themis the unpredictability of component failure.
With big machinery like wind turbines, thecomponents are expected to be replaced orinspected on a cyclical timetable, which could
be every two weeks, two months, two years or
20 years. One thing you can predict, though:Some components will fail well before an
inspection or update replacement. On theother hand, wind farm owners don’t want toprematurely replace components that
actually have more useful life left. In bothscenarios, the wind farm owner is losing
money, whether from downtime or
unnecessary labor and replacement cost.
Predictive maintenance and equipment
monitoring enabled by LTE and 5G can
prevent these losses. IoT sensors and datacollection gateways placed on the windturbine components and around the turbinesthemselves can continuously generate datafrom their environment or from their connectedassets. Through the LTE/5G network, thedata collected is transmitted wirelessly to thewind farm’s IT office, where the data is collected,
stored and processed. Analytics engines takethe data collected over periods of time andprovide predictive recommendations on theseassets using Artificial intelligence (AI) andMachine learning (ML). LTE/5G is a key piecein a continuous, proactive maintenance process.
Monitoring
Owners and operators of commercial power
production farms must stay informed about
specific aspects of the wind turbines andtheir environment. To monitor the individual
turbine speeds, the status of the motors andvarious systems, and the incoming weather,
they need “eyes on the ground.” The ability tohave fixed cameras pointing at a few different
angles of each turbine and sensors to
predict flocks of birds, sensors to gauge
humidity in the air can provide more insightto the operators, taking the guesswork out of
their decision-making, and thus making fora more precise operational environment. In
the near future, drones will be able to provide
light robotic tasks, reducing the time personnel
will have to spend high in the air outside theturbine. This in turn, reduces excess costs, riskof injury or damage and loss of optimal
operating power generation efficiency.27

27
28

Inspections
Inspections, especially unscheduledinspections due to outage or a failed
component, are very costly and time
consuming. Sending crews, often at the lastminute, to help perform the inspection is
tedious and expensive anywhere. Onshore,a trip to a failed turbine could take upwardsof a few hours for the technician to travel.
Offshore, it’s even harder, requiring extra
steps to coordinate with transport andsupport vessel companies to get crews out tothe failed turbine.
Today, wind farm operators are relying
more and more on drones to provide “eyes on
the ground” and conduct these urgent
inspection tasks. In the future, some of thesedrones will be able to do some limited lightrobotic tasks using robotic arms and fingers. A
recent report by Offshore Renewable Energy(ORE) Catapult estimated that an 18 percent
to 26 percent savings can be realized withdrones for operational tasks like inspections.28
Most drones with video capabilities canoperate in LTE networks. Some of thesemore advanced and layered applications,like light robotics, will require speeds greaterthan what LTE can offer. In these cases, 5G
networks, with high throughput speeds andlow latencies, will readily enable these extra
capabilities. Operators can invest in a
handful of drones to support the facility,
thereby avoiding the risks and the costs ofdeploying crews.
The benefits of drones apply not only in theevent of an unscheduled failure of a windturbine but for regularly scheduledinspections as well. For instance, a windfarm may require four regularly scheduledvisual inspections. Replacing two of thesewith drone inspections halves the numberof in-person inspections needed. Offshore
wind farm owners reap even bigger benefits,
given the high costs and timelines to scheduleresources to travel to the offshore wind farm.

September 2022

12

managers must be able to monitor theimmediate health of their workers as theyhang on the outside of a nacelle. Cellularbased LTE networks can allow safety andhealth teams of wind farms to use wearable
devices that can track vitals and healthstatistics of their workers. With the extra
knowledge, operations managers can help
predict if a worker may be at risk. The
operations manager can preemptively ask theworker to take an action such as coming backinside, pausing and resting or stopping toperform the task at hand. Wearable gear that
can track all these metrics give the wind farmoperator the tools to monitor the health andwelfare of their employees who are potentiallyin harm’s way.
Quite a few companies make wearable
gear that can track all these metrics. In someinstances, the gear supports real-timecommunication utilizing standards such as
Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE),
LoRa, Wi-Fi or LTE. In all cases, though, many
devices in the market can perform the protocol
conversion to LTE and help transport that
communication link back to the central IT
system and into the hands of the operations
manager.
The company must also make sure theworkers on wind turbines have their safety
equipment on at all times. Computer vision,using cameras with backend analytics basedon AI and ML, can allow the wind farmoperator to quickly recognize if workers havetaken their safety gear off or left it somedistance away from the areas where they are
critically needed. The cameras produce highamounts of continuous data transmissionthat only LTE or 5G can handle. Similarly, inemergencies, connectivity can enable remotepersonnel to walk workers through extra
safety steps in real-time. All these examples
are enhanced and supported by LTE and 5G
cellular technologies.

Keeping workers safe
We finally turn to the challenges associatedwith worker and equipment safety. We’ve
seen that remote inspection capability reduces
staff exposure to dangerous conditions andlimits the chance of these workers falling fromthe heights of these turbines.
Still, site visits are often unavoidable, andworkers have to climb the turbines. Operations

https://windeurope.org/intelligence-platform/product/wind-energy-digitalisation-towards-2030/
https://innovateenergynow.com/resources/drones-and-robotics-in-offshore-windEricsson | Solving wind energy’s connectivity challenge: The case for LTE and 5G cellular

September 2022

Conclusion

To power the future of wind energy, rely on
LTE/5G networks
We have looked at LTE and 5G-based private
networks and seen how they can be applied
to help extract business, safety and operational
value to a wind farm.
Cellular communication is uniquely qualified,with its ability to generate high throughput at
low latencies, inherent enabled security andarchitecture and high device density
connections. It is the only current standard
that benefits from both industry and massconsumer acceptance as a single worldwide
standard. Ecosystem vendors and partners
are continuing to further develop even smarter
gateways and end devices and collectively
pushing the boundaries towards making LTE
and 5G the most efficient and cost-effective
connectivity standard. By adopting thecellular standard, the wind farm industry will
drive an industry consensus and enable acommon device ecosystem to be built to
support the industry.

In the US, President Biden’s ambitious goalof 30GW of Offshore29 Wind Energy by 2030
is driving significant growth for the industry
and the wind industry, especially offshore.
To achieve its goals, the wind industry willneed to utilize all the tools in its tool chest.
This means drawing from wind energy
experiences from around the world. Cellularbased private network technologies must be
one of those tools. The benefits of thisconnectivity technology, from safety tosecurity to efficiency to mass scale, are too
significant to ignore.

About the author

Viren Parikh
Director of Energy Business
Development, Ericsson North America
Viren is responsible for supporting the
US and Canadian market for oil & gas
and alternative energy companies toovercome their communications
challenges by finding the right packaged
solution. He helps businesses understandhow private networks using LTE and 5G
can help their middle-mile or last-mileconnectivity challenges in the Energy
Sector. Viren has over 20 years ofexperience working in network
engineering, technical solutions andbusiness development roles.

https://dailyenergyinsider.com/news/29720-biden-administration-announces-30-gw-offshore-wind-plan/#:~:text=In%20a%20major%20
push%20to,offshore%20wind%20deployment%20by%202030.
29

13About Ericsson

Ericsson enables communications service providers to
capture the full value of connectivity. The company’s
portfolio spans Networks, Digital Services, Managed
Services, and Emerging Business and is designed tohelp our customers go digital, increase efficiency andfind new revenue streams. Ericsson’s investments ininnovation have delivered the benefits of telephonyand mobile broadband to billions of people aroundthe world. The Ericsson stock is listed on Nasdaq
Stockholm and on Nasdaq New York.
www.ericsson.com© Ericsson 2022

The content of this document is subject torevision without notice due to continued
progress in methodology, design andmanufacturing. Ericsson shall have no liability
for any error or damage of any kind resulting
from the use of this document.

www.ericsson.com
SE-126 25 Stockholm, Sweden
Telephone +46 10 719 00 00
September 2022