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Publication: The Times Of India Bangalore;Date: May 25, 2011;Section: Times City;Page: 4

Mobile towers major AIR POLLUTERS

Diesel Gensets Used For Back-up Power 

Jayashree Nandi | TNN

Bangalore: Nearly 60% of energy consumed by mobile towers is from diesel sets which naturally emit copiousfumes. This effectively makes mobile towers major air polluters. For long, the issue has been in the backgroundbut not anymore — the number of mobile towers is so high there’s no option but to power them with renewableenergy.

While there are hardly any guidelines on consumption of energy by these towers, the Karnataka State PollutionControl Board (KSPCB) gives clearance to telecommunication operators to set up towers depending onconsumption of diesel and how they impact air quality.

Due to high diesel consumption and resultant pollution, environmental watchdog Greenpeace now wantsmobile towers to shift to solar energy.

There are around 4 lakh mobile towers in the country. Bangalore Telecom district alone has 1,180 sites wheremobile towers are installed. A majority are owned, planned, installed and managed by BSNL.

“We comply strictly with radiation and safety norms set by the department of telecom. The energy demand for standalone 2G sites is about 12kW and for 2G + co-located 3G site is about 18kW. Power failures of up to sixhours are met by onsite back-up battery sets. Power failures of longer duration are met by diesel generator setswhich have an average diesel consumption of about 3.5 litres per hour, that’s an expenditure of about Rs 150 per hour. Last year, BSNL spent about Rs 3.3 lakh on DG sets,” principal general manager, BSNL, Subhendu Ghoshtold TOI.

Greenpeace says the operational costs of these towers are exorbitant because they consume huge amounts of energy. “While 60% are dependent on diesel, 40% are grid based. These need to be phased out. The subsidy ondiesel has been aggressively exploited by the telecom sector, resulting in an annual loss of around Rs 2,600 croreto the state exchequer, according to our estimates. A shift in power sourcing to renewable technologies, such assolar photovoltaic, will result in close to 300% reduction in total costs for telecom operators, in comparison to adiesel generator-based tower over ten years,” explained climate and energy campaigner, Greenpeace India,Mrinmoy Chattaraj.

Ghosh says: “Bangalore Telecom experimented with solar power at a few sites which showed considerablesaving in energy bills. Normally, Bescom bills are between Rs 12,000 and Rs 15,000 per month. The experimentproved that with solar power there’s a savings of about 60% on energy bills. A new concept of ‘free cooling’ is alsobeing tested in which power consumption due to air-conditioners is substantially optimized to about 25%.” Trials

are on towards solarizing towers in the BSNL network, he added.

CLEAN TALK

  Greenpeace report, ‘Dirty Talking — A case for telecom to shift from diesel to renewable’ says telecom sector in India emitted over 5.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2008 due to diesel use

Major private telecom players claim they’re trying to solarise towers but nothing has moved on ground

Ministry of new and renewable energy says telecom sector consumes 2 billion litres of diesel annually for itsmobile towers which grew to 3 bil lion in 2011 at 30% growth rate

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5/25/2011

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Karnataka State Pollution Control Board chairman A S Sadashivaiah says every mobile tower needs itsapproval since these emissions impact air quality

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5/25/2011