In the second part of Alternative Energy Africa’s special July series, we take a look at a major energy trend venturing into an unlikely sector.
The continent’s telecommunications industry is the fastest growing in the world. Ernst & Young said that between 2002 and 2007, the sector grew by 49.3% edging out Asia’s record of 27.4%. Most recently, the World Bank outlined sub-Sahara Africa as growing at a faster pace with significant investment from the private sector; however, these investments were contingent upon network expansion and infrastructure.
And just how is the telecom industry in Africa expanding while also helping those off-grid customers? Alternative energy.
One of the fastest growing telecom markets in Africa is Kenya, and back in 2008, Safaricom began using wind and solar power to reach customers in remote regions. Spiwe Chireka, Frost & Sullivan industry analyst, said the adoption of green technologies by mobile operators is a supplier-driven initiative led by companies such as Ericsson. The Swedish mobile giant developed solar-powered micro-base stations to bring power to rural areas in Morocco while developing a project to power base stations using biofuels in Namibia.
Nigeria has hinted for a few years toward developing policies aimed at forcing telecom operators to abandon generators in favor of alternative energy options. In 2001, a little over 400,000 phone lines were operating. The industry expanded recording over 95 million registered active mobile lines in 2011, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission. The government touted alternative energy as a solution to meet increasing demand with three policy initiatives. The Minister of Information and Communications Prof. Dora Akunyili had said that with power generation accounting for 55%-60% of operational costs for the telecom industry, alternative energy would be more cost efficient. “Government must drive initiatives that will lower dependency on the current energy sources and embrace sustainable energy sources as other developing countries like Zambia, Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, India, and Sri Lanka are doing.”
In April Akinwale Goodluck, MTN Nigeria’s corporate service executive, said that telephone operators would use over 25 million liters of diesel monthly to fuel 20,000 generators located at over 15,000 cell sites in the country. Based on these figures, operators could spend around $23.76 million each month just to fuel their generators. Most recently Nigeria saw Africa’s largest solar powered cell site opening with rollouts covering 900 telecom towers. Small, single operator solar sites are increasingly being deployed, given the absence of public power in many parts of Africa, but this is the first large multi-operator installation.
Meanwhile, MTN completed and deployed an off-grid wind and solar powered base station with hydrogen fuel cells as a secondary power source in the Karoo region of South Africa. The company has a five-year plan, valid through 2015, that includes greening internal operations, cutting down power consumption, and addressing electronic waste. “When you take electronic waste, it’s not just about recycling mobile handsets, but also the base stations. As base stations mature, e-waste will become more of a problem, and MTN is looking to recycle the actual field structure, and more importantly, the battery used to power the base station,” MTN Group sustainability manager, Zakhiya Rehman, said.
Zephyr Corp. partnered with telecom systems integrator Lapp Group Southern Africa to use wind power to decrease off-grid use of diesel generators. Lapp Group Southern Africa sells and installs Zephyr’s small wind turbines to operators throughout southern Africa including Namibia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. While Vodacom designed an environmentally friendly, energy-efficient solution to power its mobile BTS used to augment its network infrastructure and handle the increased traffic. The telecommunications company used a combination of solar energy and wind power, supported by fuel cell technology, instead of grid power.
Nokia Siemens Networks also introduced energy solutions for telecom operators to reduce operating costs and power consumption. The six-part program uses products and services including energy modernization, off-grid site solution, bad-grid site solution, energy efficiency consulting, green energy control, and energy OPEX management. The mobile giant has deployed more than 390 sites running on renewable energy in 25 countries including countries in Africa.
Energy trends throughout Africa are seeing changes in a variety of sectors, and the continent’s burgeoning telecommunications industry is making some big waves.
Follow the entire series:
AEA July Special: Energy Trends in Africa, July 4, 2012
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