India has emerged as the world’s fastest growing telecom market in recent years. Increasing subscribers’ base and penetration in remote areas require expansion of infrastructure. More than 100, 000 base stations have been erected on Indian soil in last 15 months which have made total number to cross 300,000. A large number of these base stations are run on diesel generators. These diesel generators consume more than 2.12 billion litres of diesel and emit 5.61 million tons of carbon annually. There is a huge scope to earn carbon credits from these base stations as many operators are switching to renewable energy resources like solar, wind or hybrid. If all the players in the telecom market come together and form an alliance to go for CDM Programme of Activities (PoA), it can bring in billions of dollar in the Indian economy from the sale of CERs. At the same time it will help in reducing the carbon footprint of the sector. This CDM PoA can also be replicated in other developing countries like China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh where telecom sector is growing rapidly.

1. bhomikjain@gmail.com
Bhomik Shah
Cellular Base Stations: Infrastructure Sharing, Carbon
Emissions and CDM Opportunities in India

2. Outline
• Background
• About the paper
• Indian telecom market
• Market share
• Carbon footprint
• Greening the base stations
• Opportunities for CDM
• Replication of ‘ITMA Model’
• Conclusion
• A mile ahead

3. June 2009
Nov. 2008

4. Jan. 2010

5. About the Paper
Objectives
• To assess the carbon footprint of mobile
networks in the country
• To assess the potential for CDM
project/programme
• To present a framework for cellular
network service providers for CDM

6. About the Paper
Scope
Analyzing the diesel consumption by
mobile networks and assess the
opportunities for CDM and reducing
carbon emission in India
Methodology
• Data Collection
• Secondary sources
• Quantitative Analysis

7. About the Paper
Literature Review
• UNFCCC
• GSM Association, London
• IPCC
• Industry Reports
• Annual Reports
• Telecom India
• TRAI
• MNRE
• MoEF
• Communication Networks etc.

8. India: The fastest Growing Telecom market in
the World
• The second largest mobile market
• From 6.40 million in 2002 to 670 million subscribers
in Aug. 2010
• 47% Growth in last 12 months
• Monthly addition of 15-20 million subscribers
Source: TRAI, Telecom India 2010

9. Aug. 2010 wireless tele-density 56.6
Growth
driven
by
rural
market
*Based on TRAI data

10. Expansion in rural area: Infrastructure
building
• April 2010: 337 000 cellular towers/BTS
• 237 000 in 11 years
• 100 000 in 1.3 years
(Source: GTL & Telecomm India)

11. Mast
Antenna A
Cellular
Infrastructure Antenna B
Battery
Generator
Air Cond.
(Source;
Vodafone 2010)

12. Indian Cellular Infrastructure Industry
Cellular towers’-ownership
14%
108000
Independent
companies
15% Operator owned
60000
50000 Joint Ventures
71% 38000
33000 32000
7100 8900
Indus BSNL/MTNL Reliance Quippo-WTTIL GTL Bharati ATC Others
(Source: GTL Infratel 2010)

13. Carbon Footprint
• A BTS with one operator requires 3-4 kW of
electricity
• A fully utilized BTS with four operators
requires 8kW of electricity
• India’s energy
infrastructure calls for
massive Diesel
Generator (DG) use

14. Carbon Footprint
BTS dependence on DG sets
10%
20% Off Grid (18-24 hours
per day)
20% Poor Grid (Min. 10 hours
per day)
Unreliable Grid (2 to 6
hours per day)
Others (No DG)
50%
(Source: GTL Infratel, 2010 & GSMA London 2010)

15. Carbon Footprint
• A single DG set consumes 2.7 litres of diesel/hour*
• One litre diesel combustion emits 2.64kg carbon**
• Average DG dependence Seven hours in a day*
Source: * Hansson, A. 2010
** IPCC, 2007

16. Carbon Footprint
Diesel consumption per day 2156899*2.7 = 5823360 ltrs
Diesel consumption/Annually 5823360*365 = 2.12.billion ltrs
CO2 emission per day 5823360*2.64 = 15373670 kg
TCO2 emission per day 15373 TCO2
TCO2 emission/Annually 5.61 million TCO2

17. Greening the base stations
• TRAI has issued guidelines to operators to
switch to renewable energy resources for off-
grid base stations
• A few operators are adopting
• Use of solar/wind/hybrid/fuel cell
• Bharti Airtel targeting 2000 RE based sites
Saving US$ 16.6 million/annually
• Aircel & Vodafone launched green BTS
“The green drive will prevent these
engines of development (BTS) from
becoming grave environmental
hazards” -MNRE Official

18. Greening the base stations
“Many of the mobile service providers do emit more
carbon from their India operations than their global
operations outside India”
Vodafone’s India operation: 1.90 MtCo2/annually
Vodafone’s global operation outside India:
1.31MtCO2/annually
•Focus on solar with improved
Technology
• 72 hours back up
(Source: • 25 years of life
Planet Earth
Aug. 2010)

19. CDM Opportunities: CDM PoA
Operators
Owned
Companies
Independent
Tower Operators JVs
Companies
Indian
Telecom
Market
Alliance
(ITMA)

20. CDM
Opportunities:
CDM PoA

21. CERs calculation (annual) for off–grid fully DG dependent
Sites
Description Calculations for Estimate for Year
Year 2010 2013*
Potential Total number of BTS 337,000 463,000
CERs Fully DG run 30,000 46,000
Diesel Consumption 710 million litres 1.09 billion litres
CO2 Emissions 1.85 million tons 2.82 million tons
CERs 1.85 million 2.82 million
Monetary Value US$ 22.2 million US$ 33.84 million

22. CERs calculation for poor grid connected sites (Annual)
Description Calculations for Estimate for Year
Year 2010 2013
Potential
Total number of BTS 330,000 463,000
CERs
DG run (10hrs/day) 60,000 90,000
Diesel Consumption 591 million litres 887 million litres
CO2 Emissions 1.54 million tons 2.30 million tons
CERs 1.54 million 2.30 million
Monetary Value US$ 18.48 million US$ 27.6 million
Cost of Going for CDM PoA: 15-25% of Monetary value

23. Replication of ‘ITMA Model’
• China
• Pakistan
• Bangladesh
• Indonesia
• Sri Lanka
• Approximately 800 000 BTS
• 10% switch to RE
• 5Million CO2e/CER annually

24. Conclusion
• High potential for CDM
• Need of the hour
• Enhanced/improved technology has a
role to play
• Cooperation among the players is
essential
• Greening the BTSs will lead to financial
incentives as well
• Initial Capex is a major concern

25. A mile ahead..
• Providing the surplus power to health
centers
• Schools
• Community centers
and helping in building social infrastructure
Nigeria is following the same..

26. Thank You for your attention
Email: bhomikjain@gmail.com