By Josh Perry, Editor
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Nokia, the global telecommunications innovator, has partnered with Efore, a producer of power products based in Finland, and Finnish telecom provider Elisa to install a liquid-cooled base station in an apartment in Helsinki that redistributes waste heat to warm the building.

Nokia has introduced a liquid-cooled base station in an apartment, which helps reduce heating costs. (Wikimedia Commons)

The company claims that using waste heat from the base station reduces 30 percent cuts in operating costs and 80 percent reduction in CO₂ emissions. Nokia explained that the liquid cooling solution, which means a removal of fans, provided further energy cost reduction.

Nokia Bell Labs developed the liquid-cooled base station at its Oulu facility and the liquid-cooled power system was developed by Efore. Elisa deployed the system in Helsinki and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. studied the environmental impact.

Pekka Sundström, head of the Elisa customer team at Nokia, said, "Nokia and Nokia Bell Labs have conducted extensive research and testing to explore the possibilities of using a liquid-cooled base station in an operator's network. This first commercial deployment will enable us to understand the real-world benefits for customers such as Elisa as they transition toward 5G, and how the system can be implemented on a wider scale to help reduce the environmental impact of information and communications technology.”