You probably know how important green initiatives are these days. On that note, we bring you this story involving the government of India, which is considering introducing a regulation that would require carriers to use solar power as a backup power supply system.
At the moment, most remote base stations in rural areas use diesel-powered generators, and that’s not just the case in India, only. However, there are initiatives to replace these generators with more environment friendly solutions that would be powered by renewable energy.
The proposal is still in works and will be sent to the cabinet soon.
The main risk is in the fact that upfront costs for carriers are huge and that’s something carriers will fight against heavily, especially after they’ve paid a record amount for their 3G licenses. This in turn could stop carriers from offering services to the already underserved rural areas of the country.
The proposal doesn’t involve any subsidies, but could offer some kind of soft loan program from the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency.
One of the winners of such an initiative could be Indian company Vihaan Networks, which has come up with ready-to-use solutions for powering remote base stations with solar power.
[Via: renewbl]