14 DAY TRIAL // Dialog Telekom, a Sri Lankan operator, has announced its plans to deploy ten solar and wind-powered base stations around the country. The company has already set up two base stations this month, and plans to go live with the other eight sites in March and April this year. These will comprise five off-grid and five on-grid base stations in the whole territory. The operator is performing this trial with equipment from eight different vendors to test the options available for the rolling-out of mobile networks using renewable forms of energy.
The off-grid base stations have been powered by generators running on diesel fuel until now, which is costly, generates carbon dioxide emissions, and is also difficult to transport to remote locations. At the same time, the electricity grid in Sri Lanka has some issues, and the company wants to test the powering of on-grid base stations with renewable energy during downtime.
The mobile phone operator has selected as primary vendors for the technology for the trial eight companies, including BP Solar for solar panels, Southwest Windpower, Bergey Windpower, Proven Energy and Kestrel for wind turbines, PowerOasis for power controllers and remote monitoring technology, and Exide Technologies and BYD for batteries.
“Being able to utilise practical, cost effective and renewable sources of power is crucial for operators wanting to provide a broad range of mobile coverage, over vast rural areas, far beyond the reach of national electricity grids,” Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer for the GSMA, shares. “Dialog Telekom, as part of the GSMA's Green Power for Mobile programme, has used a number of different scenarios to prove to the industry that renewable energy is a real and viable alternative to on-grid and generator power.”
The GSMA's Green Power for Mobile programme was launched last year, and 25 mobile operators have announced support for it. The initiative is aimed at selecting the optimal combination of renewable energy sources that would fit local conditions. At the same time, it is expected that 118,000 new and existing off-grid base stations will be powered by renewable energy in developing countries by 2012. Only around 2,000 are currently powered by such sources.