Solar replacing diesel in cell towers in India?

[DanKegel]

Solar power in India: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...eliever-energy

Along with large solar grid arrays, it mentioned a niche application:

"Acme Telepower Ltd., a Gurgaon-based company converting sites for Viom Networks Ltd. and Bharti, estimates the panels can cut the diesel running time of a rural tower to eight hours a day from 22, it said Jan. 10."

(That's using Li batteries, according to what loiks like a press release, http://eqmaglive.com/EQ-ARTICLE-2984...eployment.html )

[russ]

estimates the panels can cut the diesel running time of a rural tower to eight hours a day from 22, it said Jan. 10."

You still have the generator and still have to supply diesel - less of it which is poaitive as diesel is expensive in India.

This is a point where solar PV does help.

[Sunking]

I have done roughly 113 Cell sites here in the USA with solar. Everyone one of them requires a generator and a huge battery. Depending on the radio equipment a cell site is pretty much rock solid 500 to 2000 watt load 24 hours per day. The equipment is required to be air conditioned, even in Alaska year round. Batteries are sized for 5 to 10 day autonomy. Do the math and you will quickly discover just how expensive it gets especially replacing those batteries every 5 years using a helicopter in a lot of places. Only reason Telco's do it is because the FCC forces them to serve those remote area as part of the license requirement. Most of those sites are on Indian Reservations with no electricity in site or people for that matter. Some along I-40 and I-10 corridor running through west TX, NM and AZ.

[SunEagle]

You still have the generator and still have to supply diesel - less of it which is poaitive as diesel is expensive in India.

This is a point where solar PV does help.

I just read an article that Caterpillar is linking up with First Solar to build and employ a new type of mobile power system for remote locations which will now include solar panels, energy storage along with a diesel gen set. The solar part will reduce the amount of time the gen set has to run.

Caterpillar

[Sunking]

I just read an article that Caterpillar is linking up with First Solar to build and employ a new type of mobile power system for remote locations which will now include solar panels, energy storage along with a diesel gen set. The solar part will reduce the amount of time the gen set has to run.

Caterpillar

Yep works a lot like a hybrid vehicle.

[SunEagle]

Yep works a lot like a hybrid vehicle.

It seems Cat wants to stay near the head of the market for portable energy solutions by keeping ahead of opposition using new technology. I think they even mentioned wind power as a piece of the puzzle.

[Sunking]

It seems Cat wants to stay near the head of the market for portable energy solutions by keeping ahead of opposition using new technology. I think they even mentioned wind power as a piece of the puzzle.

I don't blame them one bit as it diversifies their market. Telecom uses a lot of CAT equipment especially at large switching facilities where it is very common to have two or more 2 Mw plus generators sitting around. Even a small cell tower uses 30 to 60 Kw generators. If you know what you are looking for at some cell sites are multiple vendors sharing a tower. Not a bit unusual to see 3 or 4 50 Kwh generators on a single site.

[SunEagle]

I don't blame them one bit as it diversifies their market. Telecom uses a lot of CAT equipment especially at large switching facilities where it is very common to have two or more 2 Mw plus generators sitting around. Even a small cell tower uses 30 to 60 Kw generators. If you know what you are looking for at some cell sites are multiple vendors sharing a tower. Not a bit unusual to see 3 or 4 50 Kwh generators on a single site.

At my old company I purchased a 2MW 4160volt diesel gen set to be used to "black start" our 60MW gas fired co-generation plant if we had to shut down due to a hurricane. We actually had a few live successful practices but never used it because we never go hit by a "big blow".