Vodafone Qatar and Alcatel-Lucent yesterday announced the deployment of the first solar and wind-powered mobile base station in Qatar. This initiative is part of Vodafone’s wider green technology programme to deploy green energy sources in all of its affiliates worldwide.
Alcatel-Lucent’s technology enables the mobile operator to take advantage of the fluctuating local weather conditions, while reducing ongoing costs and improving the quality of maintenance at remote or inaccessible sites. The trial site plays a key role in validating alternative energy solutions that can be implemented to other countries in the Vodafone Group, especially to areas not served by electrical grids.
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 of the two sources’ fluctuating availability.
The system also carefully monitors battery charging cycles and diesel generator maintenance, as well as tracking real-time all weather and energy parameters.
The solution is provided by Alcatel-Lucent’s Alternative Energy Programme 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 seven million tonnes of CO2.
2 comments ↓
This is a very challenging and good step ahead to reduce CO2 emissions, so I hope they shall be widely used.
The system has not yet been in the country to challenge the old BTS. I would like to know the total power rating of the BTS for a proper business?
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