BT turns on its first self-powering mobile site

The site was built in the Shropshire Hills after an environmental assessment calculated the viability for renewable power, and will pump out 4G and 5G to EE customers in the area.

If there is insufficient renewable energy on tap and the battery runs dry – presumably on a day when there’s simultaneously no wind or sun – a generator powered by a ‘green fuel’ called Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) kicks in to provide back-up power to the mast and charge to the batteries.

BT says it expects the site to deliver approximately 17,000kWh of wind and solar energy per year – the equivalent of 100,000 hot showers, it helpfully illustrates – and cost savings upwards of £10k.

“Delivering ubiquitous coverage is critically important in an age where connectivity has never been so central to everyday life, but it absolutely must be done in a responsible and sustainable manner,” said Greg McCall, Chief Networks Officer, BT Group. “It’s paramount that we increase the energy-efficiency of our networks, and so we’re really excited about the potential of self-powering sites in enabling us to meet both our sustainability and connectivity ambitions.” 

This site in the Shropshire Hills is a trial, but the telco group has already apparently identified hundreds of additional locations which have the potential to get their power via wind and solar as well, particularly in coastal or hilly locations, we’re told.

Vodafone got there a couple of years ago with a wind and solar powered 4G mast in Eglwyswrw, Wales, which it said at the time potentially removes the need for a connection to the national electricity grid. 

Unsurprisingly BT is framing its self-powering tower trial firmly as a sustainability move, but with energy being is one of the biggest areas of cost operators have, presumably the prospect of powering parts of the network with self-sustaining wind turbines and solar panels instead of pulling from the grid won’t have been missed by the bean counters either.