The mobile industry is going greener than ever, in line with the growing demand for environmentally friendly and energy-efficient solutions from mobile operators and telecom equipment suppliers.

China Mobile has created a "Green Action Plan" focusing on energy conservation and reducing emissions. It plans to increase energy efficiency by 40 percent by 2010, compared with 2005 levels and prevent the use of 8 billion kwh of electricity.

This will preempt the emission of over 6.8 million tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to around 2.7 million tons of standard coal energy or taking over 1.7 million vehicles off the road for a year.

To meet the demand, China Mobile worked with four major suppliers to sign up for the Green Action Plan, which prompted telecom equipment suppliers to undertake green initiatives more seriously than before.

And the recent drive is particularly focused on their most energy-intensive base stations.

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), one of China Mobile's four major suppliers, says its recent Flexi GSM base stations are the smallest and most energy-efficient GSM base stations in the market.

Equipped with the new technology, it has adopted energy-efficiency solutions that helps it save up to 70 percent in energy consumption.

In a large metropolitan city with 5,000 base stations, the solution can reduce as much as 73,000 tons of CO2 emissions a year, equivalent to the emission of 21,000 cars, according to NSN estimates.

The Flexi GSM Base Station is the main element so far in NSN's energy-efficient total solution. Speaking of its advantages, Mika Vehvilainen, NSN's chief operating officer, says it is not only more environmentally friendly, but also brings more benefits to operators. With little change to the price tag, it can generate "considerable cost savings" as it requires less power and space.

According to NSN, Flexi GSM base stations also create new types of sites in previously non-viable locations, making it possible for operators to locate in places and positions where conventional base stations cannot be located because of size and weight limitations.

The solution also includes minimizing the number of base station sites by using software features to increase coverage, as well as minimizing the need for air conditioning to cool the sites.

Other suppliers including Ericsson, Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent have also introduced various leading cards for energy-efficient solutions.

Ericsson, for example, says it is the only telecom service provider to install energy-saving software to old equipment. During periods of low traffic, the software puts parts of the network not being used on standby mode, rather than keeping radio equipment switched on and wasting energy.

Depending on the network traffic pattern, the software can save 10 to 20 percent of the energy used per base station, while still providing the same services and quality to end users, the company says.

There are nearly 1 million Ericsson transceivers in China. If every transceiver can reduce 10 to 20 percent of its energy consumption by using the new feature, 1 billion yuan can be saved.

Among the company's other recent achievements is the introduction of the Ericsson Tower Tube. It has demonstrated a base station site that concentrates all equipment into a single concrete tower, with the base station at the top. This has led to a 30 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions associated with construction, and a 40 percent reduction in energy consumption, according to Ericsson.

In the wireless sector, Alcatel-Lucent says the company has introduced base stations that can reduce power consumption through the elimination of the need for air conditioning or heating, and reduction in the physical number of base station sites required.

The power supply reduction that Alcatel-Lucent mobile radio infrastructure solutions help an operator to reduce cost is in the range of 10 to 15 percent of an entire network's annual total cost, it says.

Huawei's green sites solution focuses on air conditioners and other equipment.

"Many manufacturers help operators' energy-saving efforts by reducing energy consumption of their telecom equipment. But our study on operators' total cost of ownership found the energy consumption of the equipment itself in fact accounts for only 40 percent of the total," says Yu Chengdong, president of Huawei's Wireless Product Line. "The remaining 60 percent is from air conditioners and other equipment."

Base stations must be kept cool to prevent equipment from overheating. Huawei's Green Sites Solution has adopted an intelligent cooling system that enables operators to use fresh air as an alternative to air conditioning. Yu says the system could save 30 to 70 percent of electricity.

In addition to reduced electricity consumption of base stations, these suppliers are also driving the use of alternative biodiesel, solar and wind energy for environmental sustainability.

A week ago, Nokia Siemens Networks announced its renewable energy will be the first choice for remote base station sites by 2011. Its renewable power solution has already been adopted in Africa and India.

Ericsson, meanwhile, has conducted tests in Nigeria and India to adopt biofuels to replace diesel as a source of power for mobile base stations in remote areas.

Alcatel-Lucent also says it has set up more than 150 sites worldwide that are powered by solar cells.

(China Daily 03/31/2008 page3)