Written by: Katie Scott, Business Reporter
Ericsson and Deutsche Telekom are turning to the wind and sun to power an electricity-guzzling 5G mobile site in Germany, reports Reuters.
With costs soaring, the company has installed a five kilowatt wind turbine and solar modules, which it hopes could power the whole site at Dittenheim in Bavaria. It reports that it has already deployed twelve square metres of solar panels and these have been supplying about 10 percent of the required energy for a year.
When the wind drops or the sun is hidden, the plant still relies on power from the Grid.
The rising electricity prices have come at a time when telecom operators are rolling out 5G networks at huge cost. "Energy costs for our sector are around $25 billion per year, probably closer to $30 billion at current energy prices,"
Mats Pellbäck Scharp, Ericsson's head of sustainability, said in an interview. "So it is sort of on the same magnitude as the investment in radio equipment and other things."
Reuters suggests that the new system “could be quickly rolled out to other mobile sites in the future”.
