Research : Presented by : Mrinmoy Chattaraj Campaigner : Climate and Energy mrinmoy.chattaraj@greenpeace.org

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• Rural subscriber base as a percentage of the total has been on an upward trend in the last few years.

• Current teledensity in urban areas might give a clue to this trend.

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• The number grew by almost 8 times in a span of 6 years from 50,000 in 2007 to a little over 4, 00,000 now !

• With the roll out of 3G services, an estimated 1, 00,000 more towers will be required to support additional capacity.

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Diesel Consumption Carbon EmissionsYear

2015: 50% of all rural towers and 20% of the urban towers.

2020: 75 % of rural towers and 33% of urban towers.

Energy Efficient network planning, Infrastructure –sharing. Declaration of the carbon footprints of network operations should be

done twice a year. All telecom products, equipment and services in the telecom network

should be certified “Green Passport [GP]” by the year 2015. ‘Carbon Credit Policy’ in line with carbon credit norms with a

maximum of 50% over the carbon footprint levels of the base year (2011) in rural areas and a maximum of 66% over the carbon footprint levels of the base year in urban areas by the year 2020.

Carbon emission reduction targets for mobile networks at 5% by the year 2012-2013, 8% by the year 2014-2015, 12% by the year 2016-2017 and 17% by the year 2018-2019.

Transition has always been there!

From Analog to Digital

From circuits to packets

Adoption of renewable energy sources and Optimization of network energy

consumption

• Cutting the base load energy requirements

• Cooling and loading inefficiencies are the

areas with the highest potential for demand and consequently, diesel reduction.

• Cooling solutions such as FCU and compartmentalization offer alternative options.

• Replacing the older rectifiers with the new and more improved versions.

• Smart Energy system with intelligent charging of batteries.

• Proper network planning.

Optimization through Energy Efficiency

If adopted these methods could cut the power required by BTS equipment by nearly 40-50%.

RET – Renewable Energy Technologies

Solar Bio mass Fuel Cell Small Wind

+ Proper monitoring and

control of battery charge-discharge levels along with optimal usage of the sources

Exploiting its full potential

Higher operational expenditure savings

Extreme ease of operations.

Financial assistance in the form of subsidies

SOLAR:

Source : GTM research

BIOMASS

Organized utilization of biomass resources with the help of rural communities

will not only solve telecom power problems but also build strong ties with locals providing security and creating local jobs.

Biomass becomes viable even at prices of INR 5-8/kg. When rural electrification comes into the picture, subsidies to the scale of 90% are available for biomass.

FUEL CELL

If there are hydrogen sources within 30 km, fuel cells offer a very good solution for towers which need less than 10 hours of backup power.

There are plenty of Chloralkali plants in Gujarat, a couple in Himachal, 4-5 in the

south and a couple in the states of Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

The Approach :

The proposed approach starts by looking at the tower industry from two angles: The new towers that will be added by 2020. Retrofitting the towers already in place by 2020.

• A 50% cumulative growth is expected in the number of towers over the next 8 years. A majority of these new towers will be added with more BTS in rural and semi-urban areas as expansion into rural areas will be operators’ priority in the coming years.

• Demand side management and optimum utilisation of available renewable energy

sources have to be considered before setting up a tower to ensure optimum sizing and installation of renewable energy sources.

Existing Towers

• 70 % of the 4 lakh existing tower are located in off grid , rural, and semi urban location.

• 60 per cent of these towers BTS’s are placed in indoor shelters as the old generation equipment cannot function beyond certain temperatures.

one of the most critical

fallout of existing

towers that makes them

power hungry.

Rural Outdoor - Renewable energy options have enough potential to replace ALL or at least 98% of the diesel generator in rural outdoor areas.

With an ambition to be diesel free by 2020 - 12.5 % of these towers need to be retrofitted every year like this. This approach would make the entire 100 per cent of the towers diesel-free within 8 years.

Some Flash Facts :

• Enforcement of the TRAI regulation would save more than 540 million litres of diesel on an average annually, and about 3.5 billion litres of diesel, cumulatively, by 2015.

• Will prevent 37 million tonnes of carbon emissions during the course of 8

years if this approach is taken with 2011 as the base year. • Subsidy saving from diesel phase out every year will be INR 273 crores

annually while the overall subsidy in absence of diesel phase out will be INR 2240 crores annually

• For the telecom companies average savings would be INR 10,000 crores every

year that adds up to nearly INR 80,000 crores by year 2020. • A clustered approach of addressing the power requirements of a group of

towers with a Central power plant can prove beneficial to all the companies, the surrounding rural communities and the renewable energy company.

Market Potential and Investment Opportunities:

- Meeting the compliance of Green Telecom requires deployment of 4750 MW of

Renewable electricity by 2020. ( All form of RET )

More than 50 % of total Renewable electricity required by year 2020, needs to be deployed in next three years to create swift and viable transition.

At least 120 solar MW added annually, which entails the installation of an

average of 760 MW of solar equivalent renewable energy capacity.

Calls for an investment of INR 8,360 crores per year with the total required investment close to INR 67,000 crores by 2020. with this investment, telecom sector is making net profit of INR 13,000 crores by year 2020.

Clear case in favor of renewable energy systems from operational savings alone !

Greenpeace Demand :

All telecom companies must give much greater priority to a transparent and more accountable business model and disclose their carbon emission throughout the industry.

Publicly disclose a roadmap over the implementation of the TRAI green

telecom directive. While sourcing 50% of their energy requirements from renewable sources by 2015 and phase out diesel consumption completely by 2020.

To preserve its own economic interest and make long term investment plans

for the co-development of renewable energy source for its telecom tower infrastructure and lead the low carbon race.

Enable a low-carbon economy by playing a significant role in advocating

strong Renewable energy and energy efficiency policy at national and international levels.

For more detailed information : Refer the report : “Enabling Clean Talking” by Greenpeace India.