http://alaizareic.blogspot.co.uk/ How does powering a telecom tower using RE make absolute economic sense?
Since the incorporation of DoT in 1985 and Trai in 1997, the telecommunication industry in India has grown to the second largest mobile phone user base in the world with over 900 mn subscribers. This rapid growth has, however, created some major structural problems that have surfaced during the last couple of years. The rise in diesel price and wide spread diesel pilferage are serious issues affecting the sustainability of the telecom tower industry. The 2G scam, recent cancellation of 2G licenses have also contributed to the messy state it is in today. Through pressures from the general public and NGOs like Greenpeace, TraiImandated that 50% of rural and 20% of urban sites must be retrofitted to be powered with renewable sources of energy by 2015. The tower industry has deployed about 3,000 pilot solar sites over the past few years. Unfortunately, most of the solar systems deployed have not achieved significant savings to justify a large scale deployment. This is because the 3rd generation integrated solar technology, essential to power telecom sites, was not available until recently. The fact that Bharti Infratel plans to issue an international RFP to solarize 8,000 existing sites proves that the 1,300 sites they have solarized were not good enough. Tower and Infrastructure Provider Association (Taipa) recently issued a RFP to solarize 100,000 existing sites, based on...
