1. Presented by : Mrinmoy Chattaraj
Research : Campaigner : Climate and Energy
mrinmoy.chattaraj@greenpeace.org

2. 2000 40.0%
1800 35.0%
1600
30.0%
1400
1200 25.0%
1000 20.0%
800 15.0%
600
10.0%
400
200 5.0%
0 0.0%
Mar-07 Mar-08 Mar-09 Mar-10 Mar-11 Mar-12* Mar-13*
*-Projected Urban Rural Rural as a percentage of total
• Rural subscriber base as a percentage of the total has been on an upward trend in
the last few years.
• Current teledensity in urban areas might give a clue to this trend.

3. Idea Cellular
5000 1600
4500
Network Operating Costs(in Rs. Crores)
1400
Power and Fuel Costs (in Rs. Crores)
4000
1200
3500
1000
3000
2500 800
2000
600
1500
400
1000
200
500
0 0
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Year Ending
Network Operating Costs Power and Fuel

4. 500
400 400 432 462
350
Number of Towers
300
258 293
200 150
100 55
0
Year Ending
• The number grew by almost 8 times in a span of 6 years from 50,000 in
2007 to a little over 4, 00,000 now !
• With the roll out of 3G services, an estimated 1, 00,000 more towers will
be required to support additional capacity.

5. 600 6000
500 5000
Diesel Consumption (in million litres)
Number of Towers (in '000s)
400 4000
300 3000
200 2000
100 1000
0 0
Mar-07 Mar-08 Mar-09 Mar-10 Mar-11 Mar-12 Mar-13* Mar-14*
Year Ending
Number of towers Diesel Consumption

6. Carbon Emissions (milion tonnes)
0 5000 10000 15000
6000
Diesel Consumption (in million litres)
5000
4000
3000 Diesel Consumption
2000 Carbon Emissions
1000
0
Year Ending

7. 700 638
601
567
Number of Towers (in thousands)
600 535
505
476
500 449
400 424
400
300
200
100
0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Year

8. 6000 14
12
5000
Diesel Consumption (Million litres)
Carbon Emissions(Million tonnes)
10
4000
8
3000
6
2000
4
1000
2
0 0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Year
Diesel Consumption Carbon Emissions

10.  2015: 50% of all rural towers and 20% of
the urban towers.
 2020: 75 % of rural towers and 33% of
urban towers.
 Energy Efficient network planning, Infrastructure –sharing.
 Declaration of the carbon footprints of network operations should be
done twice a year.
 All telecom products, equipment and services in the telecom network
should be certified “Green Passport [GP]” by the year 2015.
 ‘Carbon Credit Policy’ in line with carbon credit norms with a
maximum of 50% over the carbon footprint levels of the base year
(2011) in rural areas and a maximum of 66% over the carbon footprint
levels of the base year in urban areas by the year 2020.
 Carbon emission reduction targets for mobile networks at 5% by the
year 2012-2013, 8% by the year 2014-2015, 12% by the year 2016-
2017 and 17% by the year 2018-2019.

11. Transition has always been there!
 From Analog to Digital
 From circuits to packets
 Adoption of renewable energy sources and
 Optimization of network energy
consumption

12. Optimization through Energy Efficiency
• Cutting the base load energy
requirements If adopted these methods
could cut the power
• Cooling and loading inefficiencies are the required by BTS equipment
areas with the highest potential for by nearly 40-50%.
demand and consequently, diesel
reduction.
• Cooling solutions such as FCU and
compartmentalization offer alternative
options.
• Replacing the older rectifiers with the
new and more improved versions.
• Smart Energy system with intelligent
charging of batteries.
• Proper network planning.

13. RET – Renewable Energy Technologies
 Solar
 Proper monitoring and
 Bio mass


Fuel Cell
Small Wind
+ control of battery charge-
discharge levels along with
optimal usage of the sources
 Higher operational
expenditure savings
 Extreme ease of
operations.
 Financial assistance
in the form of
subsidies
 Exploiting its full potential

14. SOLAR:
Source : GTM research

15. BIOMASS
 Organized utilization of biomass resources with the help of rural communities
will not only solve telecom power problems but also build strong ties with locals
providing security and creating local jobs.
 Biomass becomes viable even at prices of INR 5-8/kg. When rural electrification
comes into the picture, subsidies to the scale of 90% are available for biomass.
FUEL CELL
 If there are hydrogen sources within 30 km, fuel cells offer a very good solution for
towers which need less than 10 hours of backup power.
 There are plenty of Chloralkali plants in Gujarat, a couple in Himachal, 4-5 in the
south and a couple in the states of Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

16. The Approach :
The proposed approach starts by looking at the tower industry from two
angles:
 The new towers that will be added by 2020.
 Retrofitting the towers already in place by 2020.
• A 50% cumulative growth is expected in the number of towers over the next 8 years. A
majority of these new towers will be added with more BTS in rural and semi-urban
areas as expansion into rural areas will be operators’ priority in the coming years.
• Demand side management and optimum utilisation of available renewable energy
sources have to be considered before setting up a tower to ensure optimum sizing and
installation of renewable energy sources.

17. Existing Towers
• 70 % of the 4 lakh existing tower are located in off grid , rural, and semi
urban location. one of the
• 60 per cent of these towers BTS’s are placed in indoor shelters as the most critical
fallout of
old generation equipment cannot function beyond certain existing
towers that
temperatures. makes them
power
hungry.
 Rural Outdoor - Renewable energy options have enough potential to replace
ALL or at least 98% of the diesel generator in rural outdoor areas.
 With an ambition to be diesel free by 2020 - 12.5 % of these towers need to be
retrofitted every year like this. This approach would make the entire 100 per cent of the
towers diesel-free within 8 years.

18. Some Flash Facts :
• Enforcement of the TRAI regulation would save more than 540 million litres
of diesel on an average annually, and about 3.5 billion litres of diesel,
cumulatively, by 2015.
• Will prevent 37 million tonnes of carbon emissions during the course of 8
years if this approach is taken with 2011 as the base year.
• Subsidy saving from diesel phase out every year will be INR 273 crores
annually while the overall subsidy in absence of diesel phase out will be INR
2240 crores annually
• For the telecom companies average savings would be INR 10,000 crores every
year that adds up to nearly INR 80,000 crores by year 2020.
• A clustered approach of addressing the power requirements of a group of
towers with a Central power plant can prove beneficial to all the companies,
the surrounding rural communities and the renewable energy company.

19. Market Potential and Investment Opportunities:
 -
 Meeting the compliance of Green Telecom requires deployment of 4750 MW of
Renewable electricity by 2020. ( All form of RET )
 More than 50 % of total Renewable electricity required by year 2020, needs to
be deployed in next three years to create swift and viable transition.
 At least 120 solar MW added annually, which entails the installation of an
average of 760 MW of solar equivalent renewable energy capacity.
 Calls for an investment of INR 8,360 crores per year with the total required
investment close to INR 67,000 crores by 2020. with this investment, telecom
sector is making net profit of INR 13,000 crores by year 2020.
Clear case in favor of renewable energy systems from
operational savings alone !

20. Greenpeace Demand :
 All telecom companies must give much greater priority to a transparent and
more accountable business model and disclose their carbon emission
throughout the industry.
 Publicly disclose a roadmap over the implementation of the TRAI green
telecom directive. While sourcing 50% of their energy requirements from
renewable sources by 2015 and phase out diesel consumption completely by
2020.
 To preserve its own economic interest and make long term investment plans
for the co-development of renewable energy source for its telecom tower
infrastructure and lead the low carbon race.
 Enable a low-carbon economy by playing a significant role in advocating
strong Renewable energy and energy efficiency policy at national and
international levels.

21. For more detailed information : Refer the report :
“Enabling Clean Talking” by Greenpeace India.