Use of Renewable Energy in Telecom Sector
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommendations on Green Energy applications have been approved by Government. Following directives have been issued to the licensees/all ILD service providers to adopt measures to green the Telecom sector setting broad directions & goals:
i. At least 50% of all rural towers and 20% of the urban towers are to be powered by hybrid power (Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) + Grid Power) by 2015, while 75% of rural towers and 33% of urban towers are to powered by hybrid power by 2020.
ii. All service providers are required to evolve a carbon credit policy in line with carbon credit norms with an ultimate objective of achieving a maximum of 50% over the carbon footprint levels of the base year in rural areas and achieving a 66% over the carbon foot print levels of the base year in urban areas by the year 2020. The base year for calculating all existing carbon foot prints would be 2011, with an implementation period of one year and the first year of carbon reduction would be the year 2012.
iii. All service providers to declare the carbon foot prints of their network twice in a year. Further based on the details of footprints declared by all service providers, service providers should aim at carbon emission reduction targets for the mobile network at 5% by the year 2012-2013, 8% by the year 2014-15, 12% by the year 2016-17 and 17% by the year 2018-2019.
This information was given by Shri Milind Deora, Minister of State for C&IT in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
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