Last month I wrote about T-Mobile USA putting up their first solar powered cell tower. They did it to see how practical it would be to have one of these in the actual field, and to boost their image with Toyota Prius drivers who drink soya milk. The only problem, and I do mean only, is cost. One of these green towers is between double and triple the cost of regular towers, but there’s no doubt that with time that figure will drop. India on the other hand has another problem on their hands. Due to lack of infrastructure the operators over there use disel burning generators to make sure towers stay on so people can keep in touch. Not only is that unreliable, because disel generators often break down, but it’s expensive and pollutes the Earth.
A senior official from the environment ministry says that “it is estimated that currently annual cost of diesel incurred in running around three lakh telecom towers [300,000 cell towers] set up across the country is Rs 6,400 crore [$1.4 billion] and they emit around 5.3 million tonnes of carbon”.
Ajay Bhattacharya, currently with India’s Telecom Ministry, has been given the task to assemble a team of 5 people and come up with several proposals within 3 months of what can be done to encourage the use of renewable resources. Solar power is the primary candidate, and it’s perfect for India given their geographic location. If even India, who is growing so fast that economists around the world are left with their jaws dropped, can think about being green, then what about America and Europe? Are similar government sponsored initiatives taking place? Because I haven’t heard of anything even remotely this ambitious.
Operators are upgrading their networks thanks to people’s demand for more data. If the choices they’re making are green, then now is the time to shout from the roof tops about it.