Telecom Secretary Urges For Joint Task Force For Promotion Of Green Technology

There will be scope to design attractive incentivisation policy that can be channelised by telecom companies to adopt renewable energy. 

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.

At a recent industry meet, Sundararajan said that it is critical to set up a joint task force between the telecom ministry and MNRE to ensure that both the ministries work on this together. She further commented that the incentives that are given to promote renewable energy, the telecom sector should become the primary recipient of that kind of incentives.

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

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. 

According to Taipa estimates, at present, 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. 

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 the cost of operations. 

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