GSMA's Global Mobile Awards' Green Mobile Awards are for "mobile industry organisations that are focused on the reduction of environmental impacts through eco-friendly, innovative policies, products, programmes or initiatives, as well as organisations outside of the industry that utilise the mobile platform to communicate, innovate or drive eco-friendly programmes, services and initiatives." Here's a look at the 2009-2011 winners and at the trend toward greener mobile base stations.

2009-2011 Winners

• 2011 Green Mobile Award for Best Green Product/Service or Performance:
  Bharti Infratel for GreenTowers P7 Project
  
  
• 2010 Green Mobile Award for Best Product, Service or Initiative:
  VNL for solar-powered GSM base station
  
  
• 2010 Green Network Award:
  Moçambique Celular S.A.R.L (mcel) for Eco Naturalmente (“Naturally Thinking Green”)
  
  
• 2009 Best Overall Contribution to the Environment:
  Nokia
  
  
• 2009 Green Mobile Award for Best Product, Service or Initiative:
  SMART Communications – Alternative Power for Cell Sites program

More award-winning products at CTIA Wireless Green Telecom & Smart Energy Awards.

Project/Technology Details and Related Information

Some of India-based Bharti Infratel's "Going Green' initiatives are:

• Solar DG Hybrid: The project helps in massively reducing noise and emissions from DG sets and also helps in reducing dependency on diesel, thereby contributing towards low energy intensity and better energy security.
• Variable Speed DCDG: Variable speed DCDG project helps in reducing dependency on diesel thus further contributing towards low energy intensity and better energy security.
• Fuel Cells, DCFCU, IPMS, GenX & Fuel Catalyst: All 5 sub-projects help out in improving local community impact by reducing noise and emission from DG sets and also giving more opportunities for reducing diesel consumption

Phlippine wireless provider SMART, a subsidiary of PLDT, has been operating its Alternative Power for Cell Sites program since 2008. The company " uses renewable energy sources to power cell sites in “off-grid locations” or areas where setting up and operating a cell site is not normally feasible.  To date [Feb 09], Smart has about 68 cell sites in different areas across the Philippines powered by renewable energy.  Of this figure, 41 are run by wind energy while 27 are hybrid – using both wind and solar energy."

Moçambique Celular's Eco Naturalmente (“Naturally Thinking Green”) program was introduced in 2007 to replace diesel powered cell sites with " 100% Solar Hybrid powered" ones. " To date….annual CO2 emissions are reduced by over 5,000 tons, with 7,000 tons targeted by the end of 2010." The program "has not only resulted in Mcel being able to offer connectivity in remote locations outside the electricity grid, OPEX savings of USD 405,000.00 per annum at current oil prices; a CAPEX payback of around 12 months per site, have been achieved."

India telecom equipment manufacturer VNL call's its WorldGSM™ "the world's first truly sustainable mobile network." "By some estimates, India alone already uses over 1.8 billion litres of diesel fuel every year to power Base Stations when the grid is not present or not available. This does not include the fuel needed to transport fuel to the mobile sites." The company cites these advantages of its product: "Solar Powered – needs only 50 – 120W per base station compared to the 3000W required for traditional GSM. Each site can be powered by a 2-8m² solar panel, rather than the 200 m² panel required to power a traditional GSM base station...allowing for the use of solar power as the single energy source. No diesel generators are required."

Pike Research forecasts that "renewable energy will power 4.5% of the world’s mobile base stations by 2014, up from just 0.11% in 2010. In developing countries, the percentage will be even higher...8% of base stations in those regions will utilize renewable power by 2014. 'Energy is one of the top expense items for mobile network operators,' says managing director Clint Wheelock. 'As solar and wind equipment become more cost-effective in the next few years, renewable energy will be an increasingly attractive option for base station power, in combination with batteries and fuel cells.' Wheelock adds that the economics of renewable energy are already favorable in remote off-grid areas where the fully-loaded cost of delivering diesel to generators is high."

CNET reports, "The high-powered schmoozing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has yielded a project to install solar-powered cell phone towers in India. Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) and lithium ion battery maker Boston Power today announced that VNL will test the small-scale telecom stations with Boston Power's batteries. VNL had originally developed the system with lead acid batteries. ...The Boston Power batteries can power the tower, which can be set up in half a day, for up to three days without sunlight."

A discussion of wind-powered base stations says, "The GSMA, estimates a need for nearly 639 thousand off-grid base stations in emerging markets by 2012; they hope to have 118 thousand of these powered with renewable energy." This would represent ~18% using renewables.

Anil Trehan, Chief Technical Officer at Andrew Solutions, is quoted in Eco-Business.com, “In developing countries in Asia for example, traditional diesel-powered generators are often the target of thieves who steal diesel fuel in order to sell them in the black market. The result of such actions is a network that is unreliable as you can never be sure that your backup power source will be available. Using alternative fuels lower the risks of pilferage [and increases reliability].”

Fuel cells for off-grid ICT