Motorola’s green base station ©Joia Shillingford 2007

Motorola goes off grid

Motorola said yesterday it has installed a wind and solar-energy base station in Namibia. The base station is located at African mobile operator MTC’s site at Dordabis village in the Khomas region.

“With the implementation of cell sites into more remote areas this Motorola solution provides us with an efficient and reliable alternative to the often costly roll-out of mains grid electricity,” said Albertus Aochamub, corporate services general manager, MTC Namibia.

"The wind and solar cell site trial is proof of our commitment to our customers to provide the essential communication services needed in the region."

In some parts of Africa, there can be long delays in getting connected to the electricity grid. However, as the Dordabis site is a trial, there is a possibility of re-connecting it to the mains if there are problems.

According to Motorola: "The main grid physical line has been left in place however on the 30th April the power source for driving the cellsite was switched over to the Motorola wind and solar solution. The wind and solar solution is the primary power source for the site for the period of the trial."

Motorola's wind and solar base station was displayed at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona in February (see picture above) and has the support of the GSM Association’s Development Fund. The stand next door at 3GSM was an Ericsson demo of how biofuels could be used to power base stations.

www.motorola.com/reach/windandsolartrial