Novus Natural Science Research

2012, Vol. 1, No. 3

www.novusscientia.org
Accepted on: Oct. 4, 2012

Analysis of sustainability of solar energy for powering the telecom tower

Sonali Goel* and S. M. Ali
School of Electrical Engineering,
Engineering KIIT University, Bhubaneswar-751024 Odisha, India,

___________________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT
Solar energy has proven to be reliable and economical method of powering telecommunication
systems in places where conventional electricity is unavailable or impractical. India is now the
second largest of the global telecom market. The telecom industry in India has currently 7,
7 28,663
towers and poised to increase
crease to 7,50,000
7
towards end of 2012. Traditionally, telecom tower
companies use grid power as the primary source and Diesel Generators as the secondary source or
as backup to grid power. DG sets employed in telecom towers are estimate to burn about 2 billion
litres of diesel
esel annually. It is estimated to emit 5 million tons of CO2 into the environment every
year. So the alternative energy programme is aimed at reducing the carbon footprint through lower
and optimized diesel usage. This study describes the present scenario and economic aspects of
using solar energy in telecom towers.

KEYWORDS: Photovoltaic, Solar energy, Telecom tower

________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION

*Corresponding author:
author Sonali Goel
School of Electrical Engineering, KIIT University,
Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar-751024
Odisha, India,
Email: sonali19881@gmail.com

In many places of India, especially in the rural areas, power supply is erratic. Power goes off
for as many as 12-18
18 hours in a day. As telecom industry
industry go deeper and wider to connect all
parts of India, mobile becomes the only lifeline for people and communities. An average
mobile tower consumes 96 kw of power daily and in areas of weak power supply, diesel
consumption can average 24 litres per day. Powering
Powering mobile towers with solar photo voltaic
cells in remote rural India Can eliminate dependency on grid power and diesel.
India is the worlds second largest telecom market and is projected to overcome China. At
present, there are a total of 7,
7 28,663 mobile towers or base terminal stations (BTS) across
our country. Majority of these BTSs are powered by the diesel-based
diesel based generator sets as large
portion of the towers are not connected to electricity grid and the lack of stable grid power in
rural India face
ace a big challenge to this phenomenal growth.Telecom
growth.Telecom Towers are estimate to
burn more than 2 billion liters of diesel annually at a cost of 10000 crores. On an average,
about 260,000 is being spent annually to fulfil the diesel requirements of a single
sin
telecom
tower. These high input costs also result in high pollution. While the government has been
trying to convert these towers to renewable energy forms, most of the tower operators have
been very slow to implement this change.
change The renewable energy ministry had asked telecom
companies to reduce their dependency on conventional fuels and consider alternatives for

partly powering telecom towers. Indus Towers, the largest with over 1 lakh towers in India,
planned to set up 2,500 solar towers by end of this year. Viom Networks, which operates
more than 38,000 towers across India, plans to run more than one-fourth of this number on
alternative energy within the next two years. It plans to run 2,000 towers on solar power
alone by 2013.
Each tower requires energy from 1000 W to 3000 W (older installation consumes more
power as compare to new one because of technological advancement). In India about 70%
telecom towers are in rural areas. Presently 40% power requirements are met by grid
electricity and 60% by diesel generators. The diesel generators are of 10-15 KVA capacity
and consume about 3 liters of diesel per hour and produce 2.63 kg of CO2 per liter. For every
kWh of grid electricity consumed, 0.84 Kg of CO2 is emitted. Total CO2 emission is around 5
million tones of CO2 due to diesel consumption and around 8 million tons due to power grid
per annum. The move from diesel to solar and other alternate sources of energy will result in
a reduction of 5 million tons of CO2 emissions as well as a savings of huge amount in
operating expenses for telecom tower companies. Move to renewable energy sources can
generate millions of carbon credits that could offset the apex on their towers. Thus by
replacing diesel generators with solar panels in cell phone towers, more than 5 million tons of
carbon emissions could be prevented from entering the atmosphere and reduce the apex of
telecom towers. India has about 500 million mobile phone subscribers, more than even the
population of any country except China India is expected to have one billion mobile phone
subscribers by 2015 which would mean about 250,000 more mobile towers which, in turn,
would double the carbon emissions. Even if the solar panels supply a part of the total power
required, it would still save substantial amounts of money, fuel and carbon emissions.
Among the different systems using renewable energy sources, photovoltaics is promising due
to the intrinsic qualities of the system itself, it has very reduced service costs and limited
maintenance, reliable, noiseless and quite easy to install. Moreover, photovoltaics, in some
stand- alone applications, is definitely convenient in comparison with other energy sources,
especially in those places which are difficult and uneconomic to reach with traditional
electric lines. A photovoltaic (PV) plant transforms directly and instantaneously solar energy
into electrical energy without using any fuels.
Telecommunication equipment is often housed inside shelters at remote sites far off from
conventional power lines. Although telecom shelter offers protection to the equipment as they
are also placed are remote locations far from the main power grid of the tower, one needs to
be aware of the fact the temperature inside the shelter has to be regulated in order to ensure
that the performance of the equipment is maintained as well as improved. Each shelter has
two (1.5 ton) air conditioners for the key maintenance of the temperature for the shelters
electronic systems. The temperature needs to be monitored regularly as the heat emerged out
from the equipment during the operation as well the heat generated from the surroundings
tend to increase the overall temperature internally
Telecommunication Towers Companies in India
Some of the major telecom tower companies in India are Indus, Reliance Infratel, Bharti
Infratel, QTIL, GTL, Essar, American Tower Corp, etc.(Fig1) These companies are ranked
by the number of towers they have setup all over the country. However, tower business is
proving to be more and more expensive due to the costs involved in setting up these towers,
many telecom towers companies in India especially the smaller players are finding it quite
challenging to run the business under such scenario. Most of the telecom tower companies

now are therefore opting for infrastructure sharing that not only proves cost-effective but has
also been quite lucrative in operating and maintaining the tower business.
For example, Indus towers is a joint venture of major players sharing the infrastructure like
Bharti Airtel, IDEA & Vodafone. Each player has a different share of percentage holding in
this sharing business.

Fig. 1 Market share distribution of telecom infrastructure companies in India

About 60% of Indias telecom towers depend on diesel generators and the TRAI has directed
them to reduce their dependence on diesel and cut carbon emissions by running at least 50%
of all rural towers and 20% of the urban towers on hybrid power by 2015. Trai'
s
recommendations on green energy applications have been approved by the Government of
India and Department of Telecom (DoT) has issued directives to operators to adopt measures
to green the sector. The operators have to ensure that the total power consumption of each
BTS will not exceed 500W by the year 2020. The directives call for a phased programme to
be put in place by the operators to have their cell sites, particularly in the rural areas, powered
by hybrid renewable sources including wind energy, solar energy , fuel cells or a combination
thereof. Operators should aim at carbon emission reduction targets for the mobile network at
5 per cent by 2012-13, 8 per cent by 2014-15, 12 per cent by 2016-17 and 17 per cent by
2018-19.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Communications and Information
Technology has said that 50 per cent of all rural towers and 20 per cent of urban telecom
towers are to be powered by hybrid power by 2015. And by 2020, the government expects 75
per cent of rural towers and 33 per cent of urban towers to be powered by hybrid power.
Some companies like Bharati Infratel has initiated Green Towers P7 programme (Fig.2)
based on 7 innovative ideas aimed at minimizing dependency on diesel and thereby, carbon
footprint reduction. This program promotes (a) improving energy efficiency of tower
infrastructure equipments, (b) use of renewable energy resources, and (c) reduction of
equipment load on tower infrastructure equipments. As part of the Green Towers P7 program,
Bharti Infratel has commissioned 1,255 solar powered towers with a total installed capacity
of more than 6MW which has saved 6.9 million liters of diesel and around INR 280 million.

Fig. 2 Green Towers P7 programme

Stand alone PV system can be installed on telecom site. The installation process is easy and
once installed the equipment needs almost zero maintenance, keeping operating costs at a
minimum. Its lifespan of 25 years provides the site with a stable and permanent source of
power, minus noise pollution or toxic emissions. On an average, installation of solar photo
voltaic cells can lead to reduction of 2.5 tons of CO2 emission per tower every year.

Fig. 3 Telecom tower run by DG set alone in rural area without Grid connectivity

Telecom towers run by solar & wind energy

Some of the telecom towers that run by hybrid solar and wind energy are:

a) BSNL Telecom tower at Tumkur, Karnatak

Customer
Location

BSNL
Tumkur, Karnataka

Year of
commissioning

2011

Installed Capacity

10kWp Solar + 5.1kWWind

Module type

ES-230M60(235
230M60(235 Wp)

Glass type

Albarino P

Installation type
Applications

Ground Mounted
Telecom Solutions - Base
Transceiver Stations (BTS Sites)

Fig.4 Solar wind hybrid telecom tower in Karnataka

b) BSNL telecom tower at Odisha Island, Odisha

Customer
Customer

BSNL

Location
Year of
commissioning

Odisha Island
2011

Installed Capacity

15.1 kW =10kWp (Solar)+5.1 kW

(Wind)

Module type

ES-250M60
250M60

Glass type
Installation type

Albarino P
Hybrid (Solar+Wind)

Orientation & Pitch

Applications

True south and 200 to horizontal

TelecomSolutions
TelecomSolutions-(BTS
Sites)

Fig.5 Solar wind hybrid telecom tower in Odisha

COST OF OPERATION
India, with its excellent irradiance, has the opportunity to exploit Photovoltaic (PV) solar
power to meet this challenge of onsite power generation. Coupled with a battery backup, PV
systems are a viable and exciting alternative to reduce the power cost and total operating
expenditure (OPEX), thereby providing a sustainable
sustainable and reliable strategic solution to the
fuel problem. The operating cost of diesel and solar PV system is shown in Table-1
Table which
shows that solar PV system is economical ( 14.08/kWh) than diesel DG sets ( 16.19/kWh)

and also eco friendly and can market their carbon credit to reduce further the apex of the
telecom tower.
Table 1: Comparative analysis of solar PV and diesel generators (DG) uses in telecom tower
Purely DG sets
Annual consumption of 15 kVA DG
sets@ 3 litres/h, litres
4% shut down period i.e.for 96%
operation, litres
kWh produce@3.5 kWh/litre
Diesel cost@42/litre,
Cost of machine etc,
Operating cost (including
depreciation, interest, housing/rent,
maintenance), /year
Operating cost/kWh,

26280

Purely PV system
Assumed capacity, Wp

15000

25229

Annual sunlight hours

1650

88301.5
1059618

10 year yield, kWp

Capital investment
@
200/Wp,
Operating cost, (including
depreciation, interest,
maintenance), /10 years

247500
30,00,000

Operating cost/kWh,
After 30% subsidy

20.12
14.08

300000
1429918
16.19

49,80,000

CONCLUSION
In telecom networks greening would refer to minimizing consumption of energy through use
of energy efficient technology, using renewable energy sources and eco-friendly
consumables. The use of solar power is growing but equipment still requires subsidies.
Technology continues to make this option more attractive. Solar Power Energy is one of the
fastest growing sectors of the renewable energy sector in India.
India. The demand in India for solar
energy generation infrastructure is growing at 25% per annum. The solar energy industry
requires additional incentives by the government to encourage solar power adoption to give
an added boost to the sector in India. The major constraint to Solar Energy Generation in
India is the high initial costs for setting up. Compared to diesel, solar electricity offers a
sustainable, cost-effective
effective and environment-friendly
environment friendly electricity supply for growing
telecommunication industry. To reduce CO2 emission and global warming due to telecom
towers, Govt. should make it mandatory to telecom companies to use renewable energy in all
their towers.
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January, 2007
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Authority of India, www.trai.gov.in
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www.greenpeaceindia.org

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from

diesel

to

renewable,

Greenpeace,

4. Consultation
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India, Feb,2011
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Energy,, Green Innovations 2009, Environmental

Management & Business Institute University of Wisconsin Green Bay, Speech,
April 22, 2009.

6. Roland Berger, Report on Clean Economy, Living Planet - Building strong clean
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