Sustainable power and green technology are not just nice-to-haves for telecommunications operators in emerging markets: they are vital components of their strategy to grow in the developing world.
The adjective ‘green’ is a cliché in the modern world. We refer to green cars, green offi ces, green power and green technology as if adding the word to the mix somehow magically transforms whatever we’re talking about. So I won’t blame readers who roll their eyes at the prospect of ‘green telecommunications’. In this industry sustainable power isn’t a nice-to-have, cleaner alternative to how things are done now, but rather an imperative that the very future of telecoms depends upon. Nobody understands this better than emerging market telecoms operators, who face a daily uphill struggle in powering their networks. As the largest operator in Africa, MTN is one of the players at the forefront of the fi ght for alternative energy applicable to telecoms – a challenge born of necessity.
DODGING DIESEL
If you scan the balance sheet for MTN’s operations in Ghana and Nigeria, for example, you’ll fi nd that its single biggest expense is diesel. The group spends over US$150 million on diesel every year. It currently has no choice: there is no other way to power its network of base stations in countries like Nigeria. Grid power is unreliable, overpriced and doesn’t have the capacity required in the fi rst place. So it’s no surprise that MTN has become an innovator in its own right in the fi eld of sustainable power. Its future growth prospects rely on it getting off diesel – and quickly. The primary embodiment of MTN’s research and development into alternative energy sources is its new tri-generation power plant that uses methane gas to power data centres, offi ces and air-conditioning systems at its headquarters in Johannesburg. This 2-megawatt plant is not only pretty special by African standards, but is one of a kind in the world. It is powered by natural gas that is piped in from the Mozambican coast, some 874 kilometres away, via Secunda and Sasol in South Africa to Egoli Gas – MTN’s supplier. A grid at the MTN campus is connected to Egoli Gas to transport the gas down a pipeline to the tri-generation plant that is housed below the ‘Phase II’ building. MTN executives say that methane is clean-burning and sustainable. There are huge reserves of it in Africa and many ways of producing the substance. According to the operator’s engineers it makes more sense than solar, wind or most other forms of renewable energy. And, if it proves to be as successful as MTN says it will, the tri-generation plant may be a prototype for systems that will help it save some of that $150 million it spends on diesel in Nigeria, Africa’s largest market in terms of population. At the launch of the plant, Karel Pienaar, head of MTN South Africa, said that power challenges also faced MTN’s data centres. “To get more power for these operations has been a big challenge. Hence the decision to fi nd alternate sources of energy. We went through a process of selection and looked at solar, wind and other options – but these are not practical in built-up areas,” he explained. The tri-generation plant, on the other hand, is less dependent on climate and does just fi ne in densely populated and urbanised areas. “The tri-generation plant is powered by what looks like a normal diesel engine, except that it runs on methane gas. This generates power, but also energy that can be used for cooling,” said Pienaar. The actual tri-generation part of the system captures the heat generated by the methane engine and then uses this in cooling systems, thanks to a phenomenon similar to what is used to cool your fridge. The plant provides suffi cient energy to provide air conditioning for the more than 4,500 people that work at the MTN Campus – more about that later. “This is a highly effi cient way of utilising excess energy and means that the trigeneration plant is 85% effi cient,” said Pienaar. “There are three major benefi ts to this plant: it provides us with an alternate source of energy, allows MTN to become more self-suffi cient, and reduces our emission,” he adds. It also allows MTN to register for the United Nation’s carbon credit project for corporates, making it the first African company to take part in the initiative. At a cost of R32 million, the tri-generation plant isn’t a big expenditure either, and Pienaar reckons MTN will see a full return on investment in five years’ time, thanks to the substantial savings on power from Eskom.
Greener by the Dozen
MTN’s fiercest rival in South Africa, Vodacom, has also been making strides with its green initiatives. Vodacom was the first organisation in South Africa to receive a sixstar Green Star rating for the Vodafone Innovation Centre building that it is – at the time of writing – constructing in Midrand, Johannesburg. According to the operator, the Vodafone Innovation Centre will be carbon neutral and is powered by renewable energy. Once completed, the centre will house a team of experts tasked with creating energy efficiency solutions that are expected to significantly reduce Vodafone’s global emissions. CEO of the Vodacom Group Pieter Uys said that his company has been hard at work to reduce its impact on the environment. “It is a core strategic priority for both Vodafone and Vodacom. The Innovation Centre, as the hub of our creative thinking around a low-carbon future, will play a critical role in the reduction of carbon emissions across the group,” he said. Infrastructure companies are also hard at work on more sustainable solutions that will help them to harness growth in emerging markets.
Growth though Green
Ericsson, for example, has been at the forefront of rural cellular solutions for some time. Its Millennium Villages initiative has been going since 2007, with publicprivate partnerships between the UN, governments, businesses, universities and networks like MTN and Zane. The goal of the project is to connect rural villages in Africa and, in so doing, develop on-the-ground solutions for rural telecommunications infrastructure with progress in sustainability that will flow through to conventional networks too. Technology solutions to achieve the aims of the Millennium Villages project are inherently centred on renewable and sustainable electricity solutions and Ericsson has developed systems that utilise diesel, solar and wind power to turn on networks in even the most remote of villages in Kenya, for example. Elaine Weidman, head of sustainability and corporate responsibility at Ericsson, said that the project had made good headway when Africa Telecoms spoke to her at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2010. At that time the Millennium Villages project had connected a number of villages in Africa with amazing results, including trade routes being rerouted through rural villages that now have connectivity for the first time. One would think that the distribution of handsets would be a huge problem. Having a network is one thing, but without actual phones and other devices to use on the network little impact would be made. But Weidman said that when networks were made available, edge devices naturally followed. “The phones just appear ... People are incredibly resourceful,” she said. Ericsson also has initiatives to provide cellular telephony to people who do not or cannot have phones. One way it does this is with the Ericsson Virtual Number product. This technology allows subscribers to have a number that can be used on other people’s phones or at central kiosks. They log into a telephone device and calls to their number are then routed to that device, while usage is billed to their individual account. Ericsson is working to improve the related economies for networks with technology that allows them to bill based on actual network utilisation at a specific time. So, for example, a provider like MTN that runs Ericsson infrastructure is able to monitor the usage of its network throughout the day and accordingly adjust billing in a dynamic way. This might not sound like a green solution, but it aids in optimising networks, and reducing load and power requirements. Lower cost handsets have also taken some leaps forward with some even adding the ability for solar charging. Weisman doesn’t place much hope in actual solar panels on phones, however, but points to an Ericsson technology that creates central power points in villages where residents can go to charge their phones. The points, in turn, can be powered from a variety of sources, including solar, wind, diesel and others. VNL is a smaller provider focused on taking cellular connectivity to even the remotest of rural areas with technology that the company’s founder and CEO, Rajiv Mehrotra, has spent the better part of six years developing. The result of Mehrotra’s research and development is a cellular base station that can be packed into two medium- sized boxes and shipped almost anywhere. The construction is dead simple and, according to Mehrotra, can be done by the villagers themselves. Typically the station would be put up on the roof of a central building in a village. Once it has been erected the station runs off solar power exclusively, connecting that area to the rest of the network. Even in dense fog and cold weather, Mehrotra says the base station will continue to draw power. “We have seen dense fog in rural Mumbai, and during those times our stations draw 20% of the power they would in full sunlight,” he says.
GREENING DEVICES
While networks themselves develop more sustainable energy strategies, there is also a drive amongst large vendors of mobile devices to review their operations in order to make things greener. In the current environment where millions of mobile devices are sold and disposed of every year, this is becoming an important issue. One of the world’s largest device manufacturers, Samsung, has made public its Eco-Management 2013 initiative that aims to make the company a leader in sustainability within its industry. Deon Liebenberg, managing director for Samsung South Africa, said that this is being adhered to at a local level. As of the fi rst half of 2011, Samsung has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions at its manufacturing facilities by 4.58 tons per R640 851.4, equivalent to a sales-normalised cut of 38% from 2008 levels. This puts Samsung on track to exceed its target of a 50% reduction by 2013. According to the company, new Samsung products are on average 18.5% more energy effi cient than in 2008. With this, estimated indirect carbon emissions from newly introduced Samsung products were reduced by 22.89 million tons between January 2009 and June 2011. In recognition of its efforts, Samsung received six Eco- Design honours at the prestigious International Consumer Electronics Show 2011 Innovation Awards, the most ever for the company. This will also spur other manufacturers on to follow suit. Apple has also made repeated statements about its greener manufacturing initiatives and devices made from recyclable materials. “We’ve learned that about 98% of Apple’s carbon footprint is directly related to our products. The remaining 2% is related to our facilities,” it says on the company’s website. “Since 2008, as our revenue grew 74%, our greenhouse gas emissions grew only 57%. And we’re the only company in our industry that can claim that every product we sell not only meets but exceeds the strict energy guidelines of the ENERGY STAR specifi cation,” it continues. The company has also reduced packaging size. It says that the packaging of the iPhone has been signifi cantly reduced since it fi rst shipped in 2007, which has led to a 6% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation of devices. As mobile devices become more powerful, they are also becoming more power effi cient and manufacturers are fi nding smarter ways to manufacture, package and recycle them. These are imperatives for telecommunications in emerging markets. There simply aren’t enough power and other required resources to take the kind of communications that fi rst world residents are used to and replicate them in emerging markets.
