A recent research on Environment Friendly BTS site By Our Author and Researcher to investigate about BTS towers and their Impact on our environment and make out a proposal from where we can save our environment as well as to make a system which is also maintenance free by using solar panels instead of generators so here is the research findings:
“With the number of increase in our cell phone usage, the number of customers has reached the sky. Almost every person here in Pakistan has a cell phone. Every kid knows how to text and how to call somebody. Today we say if you don’t have a mobile phone, you are not alive. So to live up here in Pakistan you don’t need a life, you need a mobile phone. Of course it has made our lives quite easy but at the same time if one uses this opportunity in a negative sense, my God what a menace it can create”.
Now comes the question, how come everyone? With the new schemes, new packages, new cheap tariff rates it has become very well easy for a mango man to buy a simple phone with which he can make a call and text his loved ones. What we don’t realize is with the more number of users, the telecom companies will install more number of towers. Every tower can entertain 10-15 user calls at a time and can cover an area up to 5 KM. So with an increase in the number of users of a specific area there will be an increase in the number of towers and with the increase in number of towers, there is a big disadvantage.
BTS TOWERS:
Base Transceiver System, to a lay man it is known as the Cell phone tower. Today, cell towers are significantly more efficient, due to technology advances. Handoffs and coverage is quite amazing now. Typically a BTS will have several transceivers (TRXs) which allow it to serve several different frequencies and different sectors of the cell. A BTS is controlled by a parent base station controller via the base station control function (BCF). The BCF is implemented as a discrete unit or even incorporated in a TRX in compact base stations. The BCF provides an operations and maintenance (O&M) connection to the network management system (NMS), and manages operational states of each TRX, as well as software handling and alarm collection. The basic structure and functions of the BTS remains the same regardless of the wireless technologies.
HOW A BTS IS POWERED:
The country at present has about 250,000 cell phone towers each of which use 3-5 kilowatts of power depending on the number of operators using them. The question here arises how and from where is this power being generated? Diesel Generators are planted right beside every BTS Site. Together, these towers use more than two billion liters of diesel every year for power generation. Apart from this, fuel is also spent for cooling the equipment. These generators are not only drinking up our natural fossil but also emitting dangerous carbon gases. We all are well aware of the radiation that these towers emit, cancer and related health disorders are enough which these towers emit, what we are not aware of is the waste of our fossil fuel and the deadly gases coming out every second out of these BTS Sites.
SOLUTION: SOLAR POWERED BTS SITES:
Instead of a generator, T-Mobile is drawing on clean, reliable, renewable solar power at this cell tower in Chalfont, Pennsylvania. It’s the first solar powered cell tower in the US. Not one watt of grid-based electricity, nor one drop of fossil fuels, is required to operate the tower. Twelve solar panels make T-Mobile’s cell tower 100percent self-sufficient. In fact, extra solar electricity is often fed back to the local utility company whereby T-Mobile gets energy credits through net metering. Over the years, solar power has been considered as an energy source for the giant network of cell towers across the US and in other areas of the world. However, until recently, solar has simply been too expensive to justify the investment.
12 solar panels on a BTS Site will surely cost a lot, but with this initial investment, the tower will become highly efficient and environment friendly. In Pakistan we have many industries manufacturing different type of solar panels generating large amount of electricity. Different procedures, different constructions with solar panels can get us filthy with Power.
About the cost, let’s talk about our most famous telecom industry MOBILINK. They claim to have more than 10 million customers. Just think about it, if these 10 million customers spend a single rupee a single day, the company gets 10 million rupees for a single day and 30 million in a month. That’s a very handsome amount of money for starting off with Solar Panel installation.
CONCLUSION:
Together, these towers use more than two billion liters of diesel every year for power generation. Apart from this, fuel is also spent for cooling the equipment. If all these cell phone towers use solar energy then it could save a great amount of fossil fuels as well as reduce carbon emissions.
This Article is written by “Usman Waheed” Author At Envirocivil.com
