Wednesday, 9 April 2008

Alcatel-Lucent Installs Its 200th Solar-powered Radio Site

Alcatel-Lucent announced its 200th radio site powered by solar energy. The site including base station, microwave, and all other electrical components to provide telecom services to remote communities on the island of Bettenty and surrounding Saloum islands.

According to Laurent Cruchant, Alcatel-Lucent’s Vice President for GSM business, mobile operators around the globe can reduce their network energy consumption costs and extend the radio coverage of their networks to remote areas. Autonomously powered radio sites are an absolute necessity to extend the reach of mobile telecom networks to areas not covered by electricity grids. He said, in sunny regions, solar power is an affordable, reliable and eco-friendly alternative to traditional diesel generators, whose dependency on the oil market makes operating costs expensive.

Innovative eco-friendly power options, such as solar panels, wind turbines, compressed air and biodiesel, are reliable sources of energy, but only when powering base stations that have best-in-class power efficiency.

Alcatel-Lucent said that they have a long history of developing power efficiency and now offers a GSM solution with power consumption levels up to 40% less compared to other vendors with no decrease in traffic flow or extent of coverage.