In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Milind Deora, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, has said that 50 per cent of all rural towers and 20 per cent of urban telecom towers are to be powered by hybrid power by 2015.
And by 2020, the government expects 75 per cent of rural towers and 33 per cent of urban towers to be powered by hybrid power.
Earlier, with an aim to promote use of green energy by the operators, the government had asked them to power their telecom sites with renewable energy solutions. Currently, the country has 728,663 mobile towers or base transceiver stations (BTS) across the country. Majority of these BTSs are powered by the diesel-based generator sets.
Deora stated that in line with the recommendations made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on green energy applications to be used by the operators, the government and the Department of Telecom (DoT) has issued appropriate directives to the operators.
As per the directives issued by the government and the DoT, the operators have to ensure that the total power consumption of each BTS will not exceed 500W by the year 2020. The minister also informed Lok Sabha that as per the directives, the operators have to follow a phased programme to have their cell sites, particularly in the rural areas, powered by hybrid renewable sources including wind energy, solar energy, fuel cells or a combination thereof.
He added that the operators have to aim at carbon emission reduction targets for the mobile network at five per cent by 2012-13, eight per cent by 2014-15, 12 per cent by 2016-17 and 17 per cent by 2018-19.
