The public will punish telcos that don’t commit to net zero – GenCell

Green power firm GenCell spoke to us at MWC about what it sees as the need for telcos to adopt renewable energy, and warned of repercussions for any that do not commit to net zero targets.

GenCell, having last month teamed up with German MNO Deutsche Telekom to perform a joint lab tests of a hydrogen-based backup power system for mobile sites called GenCell Box, was at Mobile World Congress last week presenting a case for more green energy adoption within telco infrastructures.

In recent years large firms in particular have been turning up the volume when it comes to green messaging, one of the most common being a pledge to be ‘net zero’ or ‘carbon neutral’ by a certain year. Of course it’s not possible for a door mouse to simply stop producing CO2, let alone a multinational tech hardware firm, so many of the schemes are based around offsetting or using more environmentally friendly sources of power.

There are a few ways of going about this, and GenCell is clearly a proponent of using hydrogen power to do so. Telecoms.com caught up with its CEO Rami Reshef (pictured) at MWC last week to find out more.

Acknowledging some of the limitations of wind and solar energy – in that on a cloudy or windless day the you don’t generate much power – Reshef explained what GenCell is providing as an alternative: “We are offering hydrogen power technology in order to allow [telcos] to have a hybrid solution. If we try to sum up what we offering to the telco industry, it’s the possibility to bridge the gap between the need for digitization and to connect the unconnected, and to avoid any damage to Mother Nature. This is what we’re offering to Mobile World Congress.”

When asked what the consequences for telcos would be if they did not adopt more green energy supplies such as the one his firm offered offers, Reshef said: “They will consume more and more energy, and they will never meet their sustainability goals. So I don’t think that they have any way to avoid using clean power.”

When asked what if a telco firm has not actually committed to becoming net zero publicly, Reshef added: “If they haven’t committed to being net zero,I think and I would like to believe that the public will punish them. I think that each one of us has responsibility for the next generation, and if we leave behind an earth that is not suitable to for the next generation to be on, then we’ll punish them. I can say the telco operators are committed, it’s not a green wash, not anymore. It was a greenwash for many, many years. Now there are clear goals that they have set, and they’re invested in working towards them.”