India has approximately 4,25,000 telecom towers1 which form the backbone of its telecom market. These towers require about 16.5 billion kWh of electrical energy and contribute up to 70 per cent to the total operating costs in rural areas and anywhere between 15-30 per cent to the total operating costs in urban areas.
Due to an unreliable electrical power grid, tower infrastructure companies use diesel generators, batteries and a variety of power management equipment to back-up the grid and ensure network availability. The growing cost of energy due to increasing diesel prices and concerns over rising greenhouse emissions have caused tower infrastructure companies to focus on better power management methods. Various methods in the categories of demand management, supply management and/or renewable energies are being adopted.
The current trial deployments of renewable energy technology (RET) solutions like solar photovoltaic, wind power, biomass and fuel cells across India are proving that each RET has its own challenges and that no single RET provides a silver bullet solution.
This document focuses on understanding the RET solutions suitable for telecom in India and provides a comparison of the technologies, their characteristics, economics, suitability and limitations. The sequels to this document will discuss the ground realities of implementing RET solutions across India on a large scale.
The document is attached
