Telecom Towers in India Switching to Hydrogen Fuel Cells

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Intelligent EnergyIntelligent Energy says that it is purchasing contracts from GTL Limited to provide hydrogen fuel cell technology to more than 27,400 telecommunications towers in India.

More than 70 percent of the 425,000 telecom towers in India go offline for about eight hours per day, according to the release. That impacts almost half of the 935 million phones used across the country. The main backups today are diesel generators. This approach is costly, inefficient and emits large amounts of CO2, NO and carcinogens.

Hydrogen fuel cells are thought to be both less expensive and safer. Intelligent Energy's Indian subsidiary Essential Energy will assume power management of the towers. About 70 percent of the towers will be transitioned from diesel to hydrogen during the life of the contract.

The move of the contracts from GTL to Intelligent Energy appears to be part of a larger deal. The Economic Times reports that GTL is selling its energy management business to Essential Energy India. The story says that the regulatory process soon will start.

Environment + Energy Leader