New Delhi: Telecom tower operators across the country would soon switch over to solar power to operate their towers.

India currently has more than 250,000 cell phone towers, which consume about 2 billion litres of diesel per year.
 
The move from diesel to solar and other alternate sources of energy will result in a reduction of 5 million tons of CO2 emissions as well as a savings of US $1.4 billion in operating expenses for telecom tower companies.

GTL Infra, a subsidiary of Mumbai-based Global Group, which has 32,500 towers, has already started moving from diesel to solar and other alternate sources of energy.

The largest tower firm in India is Indus Towers, a joint venture between Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, which has a little over 100,000 towers. Reliance Infratel has around 50,000, and Bharti Infratel has 30,000 towers.
Incidentally Airtel used to be the second-largest buyer of diesel after Indian Railways till 2007.

Bharti Airtel has already started a pilot project to evaluate the savings by moving from diesel to solar-based energy source.
The companies are hoping the government will soon disburse the subsidy of 50 per cent on solar panels as announced in the Union budget.

“Each solar panel costs about Rs 28 lakh. If the government gives the subsidies sooner, we would be able to roll out faster. However, we hear that from April 1, 30 per cent of subsidy will be disbursed,” a GTL Infra executive said.
—iGovernment Bureau