Mobile operators finding green alternatives to power remote stations

Stymied by the high costs and complexities of transporting diesel to remote cellular base stations, mobile carriers are turning to alternative energy, according to a recent BusinessWeek article.

Demand is high for mobile service in parts Africa and India, according to the article, yet the reach of the electric grids is lacking in some parts of those regions to power the cell stations. Traditionally, bases that can’t draw power from a nearby electrical substation run on diesel-power generators, which is a costly logistical nightmare.

Now, however, companies such as Ericsson and Nokia Siemens are seeing promise in alternative energies including wind, solar power, and bio-fuel. In India, for example, “manufacturers are moving toward facilities that use both wind and sun. Flexenclosure recently unveiled a design for a base station that features a wind generator atop the same tower that supports the antenna. Solar panels sit on the roof of the shelter that houses the switching equipment,” according to the BusinessWeek article.

The upfront costs of these approaches are pricier, but the operation costs of the alternatively fueled stations are “dramtically lower,” according to the article.

Additionally, carriers are adopting techniques to reduce the stations’ power consumption, such as burying batteries beneath the base, thus “reducing the need for energy-gulping cooling equipment (and also reducing the risk of theft),” according to the BusinessWeek article.

I find it interesting how countries with limited resources are becoming a test bed for greener technology, such as those mentioned above as well as, say, the low-power OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) computers. Hopefully we’ll see the lessons learned abroad implemented here.