Analysis of sustainability of solar energy for powering the telecom tower

School of Electrical Engineering___________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT

Solar energy has proven to be reliable and economical systems in places where conventional electricity is unavailable or impractical. India is now the second largest of the global telecom market. The telecom industry in India has currently 7towers and poised to increase to 7companies use grid power as the primary source and Diesel Generators as the secondary source or as backup to grid power. DG sets employed in telecom towers are estimate to burn about 2 billion litres of diesel annually. It is estimated to emit 5 million tons of COyear. So the alternative energy programme is aimed at reducing the carbon footprint through lower and optimized diesel usage. This study describes the present scenario using solar energy in telecom towers.

KEYWORDS: Photovoltaic, Solar energy, Telecom tower________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION

In many places of India, especially in the rural areas, power supply is erratic. Power goes off for as many as 12-18 hours in a day. As telecom indusparts of India, mobile becomes the only lifeline for people and communities. An average mobile tower consumes 96 kw of power daily and in areas of weak power supply, diesel consumption can average 24 litres per day. Pcells in remote rural India Can eliminate dependency on grid power and diesel.India is the worlds second largest telecom market and is projected to overcome China. At present, there are a total of 7our country. Majority of these BTSs are powered by the dieselportion of the towers are not connected to electricity grid and the lack of stable grid power in rural India face a big challenge to this phenomenal growth.burn more than 2 billion liters of diesel annually at a cost of about 260,000 is being spent annually to fulfil the diesel requirements of a sintower. These high input costs also result in high pollution. While the government has been trying to convert these towers to renewable energy forms, most of the tower operators have been very slow to implement this changecompanies to reduce their dependency on conventional fuels and consider alternatives for

Novus Natural Science Research

Analysis of sustainability of solar energy for powering the telecom tower

Sonali Goel* and S. M. Ali School of Electrical Engineering, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar-751024 Odisha,

___________________________________________________________________________

Solar energy has proven to be reliable and economical method of powering telecommunication systems in places where conventional electricity is unavailable or impractical. India is now the second largest of the global telecom market. The telecom industry in India has currently 7

crease to 7,50,000 towards end of 2012. Traditionally, telecom tower companies use grid power as the primary source and Diesel Generators as the secondary source or as backup to grid power. DG sets employed in telecom towers are estimate to burn about 2 billion

esel annually. It is estimated to emit 5 million tons of CO2 into the environment every year. So the alternative energy programme is aimed at reducing the carbon footprint through lower and optimized diesel usage. This study describes the present scenario and economic aspects of using solar energy in telecom towers.

Photovoltaic, Solar energy, Telecom tower ________________________________________________________________________

*Corresponding authorSchool of Electrical Engineering, KIIT University,

BhubaneswarEmail: sonali19881@gmail.com

In many places of India, especially in the rural areas, power supply is erratic. Power goes off 18 hours in a day. As telecom industry go deeper and wider to connect all

parts of India, mobile becomes the only lifeline for people and communities. An average mobile tower consumes 96 kw of power daily and in areas of weak power supply, diesel consumption can average 24 litres per day. Powering mobile towers with solar photo voltaic cells in remote rural India Can eliminate dependency on grid power and diesel.India is the worlds second largest telecom market and is projected to overcome China. At present, there are a total of 7, 28,663 mobile towers or base terminal stations (BTS) across our country. Majority of these BTSs are powered by the diesel-based generator sets as large portion of the towers are not connected to electricity grid and the lack of stable grid power in

ace a big challenge to this phenomenal growth.Telecom Towers are estimate to burn more than 2 billion liters of diesel annually at a cost of 10000 crores.

260,000 is being spent annually to fulfil the diesel requirements of a sinThese high input costs also result in high pollution. While the government has been

trying to convert these towers to renewable energy forms, most of the tower operators have been very slow to implement this change. The renewable energy ministry had asked telecom companies to reduce their dependency on conventional fuels and consider alternatives for

Novus Natural Science Research 2012, Vol. 1, No. 3

www.novusscientia.org

Accepted on: Oct. 4, 2012

Analysis of sustainability of solar energy for powering the telecom tower

Odisha, India, ___________________________________________________________________________

method of powering telecommunication systems in places where conventional electricity is unavailable or impractical. India is now the second largest of the global telecom market. The telecom industry in India has currently 7, 28,663

towards end of 2012. Traditionally, telecom tower companies use grid power as the primary source and Diesel Generators as the secondary source or as backup to grid power. DG sets employed in telecom towers are estimate to burn about 2 billion

into the environment every year. So the alternative energy programme is aimed at reducing the carbon footprint through lower

and economic aspects of

___________________________________________________________________________

*Corresponding author: Sonali Goel Engineering, KIIT University,

Bhubaneswar-751024 Odisha, India, sonali19881@gmail.com

In many places of India, especially in the rural areas, power supply is erratic. Power goes off try go deeper and wider to connect all

parts of India, mobile becomes the only lifeline for people and communities. An average mobile tower consumes 96 kw of power daily and in areas of weak power supply, diesel

owering mobile towers with solar photo voltaic cells in remote rural India Can eliminate dependency on grid power and diesel. India is the worlds second largest telecom market and is projected to overcome China. At

mobile towers or base terminal stations (BTS) across based generator sets as large

portion of the towers are not connected to electricity grid and the lack of stable grid power in Telecom Towers are estimate to

10000 crores. On an average, 260,000 is being spent annually to fulfil the diesel requirements of a single telecom

These high input costs also result in high pollution. While the government has been trying to convert these towers to renewable energy forms, most of the tower operators have

ministry had asked telecom companies to reduce their dependency on conventional fuels and consider alternatives for

partly powering telecom towers. Indus Towers, the largest with over 1 lakh towers in India, planned to set up 2,500 solar towers by end of this year. Viom Networks, which operates more than 38,000 towers across India, plans to run more than one-fourth of this number on alternative energy within the next two years. It plans to run 2,000 towers on solar power alone by 2013. Each tower requires energy from 1000 W to 3000 W (older installation consumes more power as compare to new one because of technological advancement). In India about 70% telecom towers are in rural areas. Presently 40% power requirements are met by grid electricity and 60% by diesel generators. The diesel generators are of 10-15 KVA capacity and consume about 3 liters of diesel per hour and produce 2.63 kg of CO2 per liter. For every kWh of grid electricity consumed, 0.84 Kg of CO2 is emitted. Total CO2 emission is around 5 million tones of CO2 due to diesel consumption and around 8 million tons due to power grid per annum. The move from diesel to solar and other alternate sources of energy will result in a reduction of 5 million tons of CO2 emissions as well as a savings of huge amount in operating expenses for telecom tower companies. Move to renewable energy sources can generate millions of carbon credits that could offset the apex on their towers. Thus by replacing diesel generators with solar panels in cell phone towers, more than 5 million tons of carbon emissions could be prevented from entering the atmosphere and reduce the apex of telecom towers. India has about 500 million mobile phone subscribers, more than even the population of any country except China India is expected to have one billion mobile phone subscribers by 2015 which would mean about 250,000 more mobile towers which, in turn, would double the carbon emissions. Even if the solar panels supply a part of the total power required, it would still save substantial amounts of money, fuel and carbon emissions. Among the different systems using renewable energy sources, photovoltaics is promising due to the intrinsic qualities of the system itself, it has very reduced service costs and limited maintenance, reliable, noiseless and quite easy to install. Moreover, photovoltaics, in some stand- alone applications, is definitely convenient in comparison with other energy sources, especially in those places which are difficult and uneconomic to reach with traditional electric lines. A photovoltaic (PV) plant transforms directly and instantaneously solar energy into electrical energy without using any fuels. Telecommunication equipment is often housed inside shelters at remote sites far off from conventional power lines. Although telecom shelter offers protection to the equipment as they are also placed are remote locations far from the main power grid of the tower, one needs to be aware of the fact the temperature inside the shelter has to be regulated in order to ensure that the performance of the equipment is maintained as well as improved. Each shelter has two (1.5 ton) air conditioners for the key maintenance of the temperature for the shelters electronic systems. The temperature needs to be monitored regularly as the heat emerged out from the equipment during the operation as well the heat generated from the surroundings tend to increase the overall temperature internally

Telecommunication Towers Companies in India

Some of the major telecom tower companies in India are Indus, Reliance Infratel, Bharti Infratel, QTIL, GTL, Essar, American Tower Corp, etc.(Fig1) These companies are ranked by the number of towers they have setup all over the country. However, tower business is proving to be more and more expensive due to the costs involved in setting up these towers, many telecom towers companies in India especially the smaller players are finding it quite challenging to run the business under such scenario. Most of the telecom tower companies

now are therefore opting for infrastructure sharing that not only proves cost-effective but has also been quite lucrative in operating and maintaining the tower business.

For example, Indus towers is a joint venture of major players sharing the infrastructure like Bharti Airtel, IDEA & Vodafone. Each player has a different share of percentage holding in this sharing business.

Fig. 1 Market share distribution of telecom infrastructure companies in India

About 60% of Indias telecom towers depend on diesel generators and the TRAI has directed them to reduce their dependence on diesel and cut carbon emissions by running at least 50% of all rural towers and 20% of the urban towers on hybrid power by 2015. Trai's recommendations on green energy applications have been approved by the Government of India and Department of Telecom (DoT) has issued directives to operators to adopt measures to green the sector. The operators have to ensure that the total power consumption of each BTS will not exceed 500W by the year 2020. The directives call for a phased programme to be put in place by the operators 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. Operators should aim at carbon emission reduction targets for the mobile network at 5 per cent by 2012-13, 8 per cent by 2014-15, 12 per cent by 2016-17 and 17 per cent by 2018-19.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, 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.

Some companies like Bharati Infratel has initiated Green Towers P7 programme (Fig.2) based on 7 innovative ideas aimed at minimizing dependency on diesel and thereby, carbon footprint reduction. This program promotes (a) improving energy efficiency of tower infrastructure equipments, (b) use of renewable energy resources, and (c) reduction of equipment load on tower infrastructure equipments. As part of the Green Towers P7 program, Bharti Infratel has commissioned 1,255 solar powered towers with a total installed capacity of more than 6MW which has saved 6.9 million liters of diesel and around INR 280 million.

Fig. 2 Green Towers P7 programme

Stand alone PV system can be installed on telecom site. The installation process is easy and once installed the equipment needs almost zero maintenance, keeping operating costs at a minimum. Its lifespan of 25 years provides the site with a stable and permanent source of power, minus noise pollution or toxic emissions. On an average, installation of solar photo voltaic cells can lead to reduction of 2.5 tons of CO2 emission per tower every year.

Fig. 3 Telecom tower run by DG set alone in rural area without Grid connectivity

Telecom towers run by solar & wind energy Some of the telecom towers that run by hybrid solar and wind energy are:

a) BSNL Telecom tower at Tumkur, Karnatak

Fig.4 Solar wind hybrid telecom tower in Karnataka

b) BSNL telecom tower at Odisha

Fig.5 Solar wind hybrid telecom tower in Odisha

COST OF OPERATION India, with its excellent irradiance, has the opportunity to exploitpower to meet this challenge of onsite power generation. Coupled with a battery backup, PV systems are a viable and exciting alternative to reduce the power cost and total operating expenditure (OPEX), thereby providing a sustainabfuel problem. The operating cost of diesel and solar PV system is shown in Tableshows that solar PV system is economical (

a) BSNL Telecom tower at Tumkur, Karnatak

Fig.4 Solar wind hybrid telecom tower in Karnataka

b) BSNL telecom tower at Odisha Island, Odisha

Fig.5 Solar wind hybrid telecom tower in Odisha

India, with its excellent irradiance, has the opportunity to exploit Photovoltaic (PV) solar power to meet this challenge of onsite power generation. Coupled with a battery backup, PV systems are a viable and exciting alternative to reduce the power cost and total operating expenditure (OPEX), thereby providing a sustainable and reliable strategic solution to the fuel problem. The operating cost of diesel and solar PV system is shown in Tableshows that solar PV system is economical ( 14.08/kWh) than diesel DG sets (

Customer BSNL Location Tumkur, Karnataka

Year of commissioning

2011

Installed Capacity 10kWp Solar + 5.1kWWind

Module type ES-230M60(235 Wp)Glass type Albarino P

Installation type Ground MountedApplications Telecom Solutions

Transceiver Stations (BTS Sites)

Customer Customer BSNL Location Odisha IslandYear of commissioning

2011

Installed Capacity 15.1 kW =10kWp (Solar)+5.1 kW (Wind)

Module type ES-250M60Glass type Albarino P Installation type Hybrid (Solar+Wind)

Orientation & Pitch True south and 20Applications TelecomSolutions

Photovoltaic (PV) solar power to meet this challenge of onsite power generation. Coupled with a battery backup, PV systems are a viable and exciting alternative to reduce the power cost and total operating

le and reliable strategic solution to the fuel problem. The operating cost of diesel and solar PV system is shown in Table-1 which

14.08/kWh) than diesel DG sets ( 16.19/kWh)

Tumkur, Karnataka

10kWp Solar + 5.1kWWind

230M60(235 Wp) Albarino P

Ground Mounted Telecom Solutions - Base Transceiver Stations (BTS Sites)

Odisha Island

15.1 kW =10kWp (Solar)+5.1 kW

250M60

Hybrid (Solar+Wind)

True south and 200 to horizontal TelecomSolutions-(BTS Sites)

and also eco friendly and can markettelecom tower.

Table 1: Comparative analysis of solar PV and diesel generators (DG) uses in telecom towerPurely DG sets

Annual consumption of 15 kVA DG sets@ 3 litres/h, litres 4% shut down period i.e.for 96% operation, litres kWh produce@3.5 kWh/litre Diesel cost@42/litre,

Cost of machine etc, Operating cost (including depreciation, interest, housing/rent, maintenance), /year Operating cost/kWh,

CONCLUSION

In telecom networks greening would refer to minimizing consumption of energy through use of energy efficient technology, using renewable energy sources consumables. The use of solar power is growing but equipment still requires subsidies. Technology continues to make this option more attractive. Solar Power Energy is one of the fastest growing sectors of the renewable energy sector in Indenergy generation infrastructure is growing at 25% per annum. The solar energy industry requires additional incentives by the government to encourage solar power adoption to give an added boost to the sector in India. The India is the high initial costs for setting up. Compared to diesel, solar electricity offers a sustainable, cost-effective and environmenttelecommunication industry. Totowers, Govt. should make it mandatory to telecom companies to use renewable energy in all their towers.

REFERENCES

1. Solar energy in telecommunication, Bechtel telecommunication technical Journal, January, 2007

2. Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator ReportAuthority of India, www.trai.gov.in

3. Case for telecom to shift from diesel to renewable, Greenpeace, www.greenpeaceindia.org

4. Consultation paper on Green Telecommunication, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Feb,2011

5. Larry L. Weyers, Speech on Management & Business Institute University of Wisconsin April 22, 2009.

and also eco friendly and can market their carbon credit to reduce further the

Comparative analysis of solar PV and diesel generators (DG) uses in telecom towerPurely DG sets Purely PV system

Annual consumption of 15 kVA DG 26280 Assumed capacity, Wp

25229 Annual sunlight hours

88301.5 10 year yield, kWp 1059618 Capital investment

@ 200/Wp, 300000 Operating cost, (including

depreciation, interest, maintenance), /10 years depreciation, interest, housing/rent,

1429918

16.19 Operating cost/kWh, After 30% subsidy

In telecom networks greening would refer to minimizing consumption of energy through use of energy efficient technology, using renewable energy sources consumables. The use of solar power is growing but equipment still requires subsidies. Technology continues to make this option more attractive. Solar Power Energy is one of the fastest growing sectors of the renewable energy sector in India. The demand in India for solar energy generation infrastructure is growing at 25% per annum. The solar energy industry requires additional incentives by the government to encourage solar power adoption to give an added boost to the sector in India. The major constraint to Solar Energy Generation in India is the high initial costs for setting up. Compared to diesel, solar electricity offers a

effective and environment-friendly electricity supply for growing telecommunication industry. To reduce CO2 emission and global warming due to telecom towers, Govt. should make it mandatory to telecom companies to use renewable energy in all

Solar energy in telecommunication, Bechtel telecommunication technical Journal,

Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report- Telecom Regulatory www.trai.gov.in

Case for telecom to shift from diesel to renewable, Greenpeace, www.greenpeaceindia.org

tion paper on Green Telecommunication, Telecom Regulatory Authority of

Larry L. Weyers, Speech on Green Energy, Green Innovations 2009, Environmental Management & Business Institute University of Wisconsin Green Bay, Speech,

their carbon credit to reduce further the apex of the

Comparative analysis of solar PV and diesel generators (DG) uses in telecom tower Purely PV system

15000

1650

247500 30,00,000

49,80,000

20.12 14.08

In telecom networks greening would refer to minimizing consumption of energy through use of energy efficient technology, using renewable energy sources and eco-friendly consumables. The use of solar power is growing but equipment still requires subsidies. Technology continues to make this option more attractive. Solar Power Energy is one of the

ia. The demand in India for solar energy generation infrastructure is growing at 25% per annum. The solar energy industry requires additional incentives by the government to encourage solar power adoption to give

major constraint to Solar Energy Generation in India is the high initial costs for setting up. Compared to diesel, solar electricity offers a

friendly electricity supply for growing emission and global warming due to telecom

towers, Govt. should make it mandatory to telecom companies to use renewable energy in all

Solar energy in telecommunication, Bechtel telecommunication technical Journal,

Telecom Regulatory

Case for telecom to shift from diesel to renewable, Greenpeace,

tion paper on Green Telecommunication, Telecom Regulatory Authority of

, Green Innovations 2009, Environmental Green Bay, Speech,

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