Idea Cellular has obtained a grant worth $1 million from the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to fund its green telecom pilot project. The project involves deployment of solar hybrid methanol-based fuel cells (SHMBFC) at tower sites in India.
The pilot project is aimed at assessing the technical, economic and financial feasibility of deploying fuel cells which provide continuous and uninterruptible power to off grid telecom towers at five of the operator?s sites. Under the project, Idea Cellular plans to replace stationary diesel engines with SHMBFC technology using 2.5 and 5.0 kilowatt fuel cell units.
The pilot project is also being supported by ICF International (Fairfax, VA). The later plans to undertake a feasibility study for the project over the next few months.
