State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

We have mentioned the efforts of making telecom infrastructure green many times. The goal is to expand mobile communication to areas not served by electrical grids, as well as to reduce operating expenses and environmental impact. Vodafone Qatar and Alcatel-Lucent announced the deployment of the first hybrid powered Base Station in Qatar, using an integration of solar and wind energy. Vodafone and other companies intend to learn from these trial sites and plans to apply these techniques all over the world.

The wind turbine at the Qatar site has been mounted at the top of the existing mast to leverage higher winds. The energy controller brings intelligent control to simultaneously draw power from both the photovoltaic panels and wind turbine, based on solar intensity and wind speed, making the most – at every second – of the two sources’ fluctuating availability. The system also carefully monitors battery charging cycles and diesel generator maintenance runs so as to maximize their lifespan. A full monitoring system enables real-time tracking of all weather and energy parameters; a key component to enabling large scale deployments.

The solution is provided by Alcatel-Lucent’s Alternative Energy Program. Announced in Feb 2009 to address the challenge that more than 100,000 mobile base stations shall be equipped with alternative energy solutions between 2010 and 2012, representing a yearly savings of about 7 million tons of CO2, the program aims at providing the first truly industrial solution of wireless Base Stations powered with alternative energies, ready for large deployments. Leveraging its “Sustainable Power” services suite, Alcatel-Lucent provides consulting to help operators build a comprehensive deployment plan tailored to their specific environment, and then manages design, dimensioning, installation, transformation and integration of the entire network.