Telecom secy calls for joint task force with renewable energy ministry to promote green tech

Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan on Wednesday proposed setting up a joint task force with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) to promote green technology in the sector.

"It is critical that we should set up a joint task force between the two ministries (telecom and MNRE) to ensure that we work on this together. The incentives that are given to promote renewable energy, the telecom sector should become primary recipient of that kind of incentives," Sundararajan said at an event of telecom tower industry body Taipa.

She said that within the mandate of MNRE, there will be scope to design attractive incentivisation policy that can be channelised to telecom companies who adopt renewable energy.

"In the new policy, we have already made provision to promote green telecom," Sundararajan said.

Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (Taipa) Director General Tilak Raj Dua said the telecom sector in the country has already deployed around 1.15 lakh diesel-free sites by using alternative energy sources, such as lithium-ion batteries and VRLA batteries.

Currently, the energy storage solutions contribute up to 5 gigawatt hours (GWh) towards power consumption by the telecom sector and is expected to grow up to 25 GWh by 2022, according to Taipa estimates.

Trai Chairman R S Sharma said with 5G services coming, telecom infrastructure especially base stations will have to be quadrupled and green technology can help industry save cost of operations.

He said rewards associated with adoption of renewable energy are enough to drive its adoption in the sector rather than any strict regulatory measures.