Intelligent Energy, a spin-out of Loughborough University, signs multi-million dollar agreement to power Indian telecom towers with hydrogen fuel cells.
Cleantech spin-out Intelligent Energy has announced a “multi-million dollar, multi-year agreement” to install hydrogen fuel cells across telecom towers owned by Ascend Telecom Infrastructure, which provides coverage to all mobile networks in India.
India, which has a rapidly growing mobile telecoms industry, has around 425,000 telecom towers. However, up to 75% of these do not have power for eight hours a day or more due to power cuts. Currently, many of these towers rely on diesel-powered generators. The industry is the second-largest consumer of diesel in the country, with most of the 2.6 billion litres imported at a significant cost to the economy and to the mobile service providers, which have to pay more than ten times the cost of grid electricity to keep the towers powered via the fossil fuel.
Under terms of the agreement, Intelligent Energy, a spin-out of Loughborough University, will begin installing hydrogen fuel power cells across Ascend’s network with a view to both reduce cost and environmental impact.
Henri Winand, chief executive of Intelligent Energy, said: “This is a landmark deal which holds out the prospect of real and significant cost reductions for the Indian mobile telecommunications industry. Because of its sheer size and the expectation that the number of telecom towers will almost double to 800,000 by 2020, India represents a huge opportunity. The market is already worth as much as $2.8 billion a year. The collaboration with Ascend alone is the equivalent of providing power to all the telecom towers in greater London serving more than 10 million end-consumers or about one-sixth of the UK population. Intelligent Energy’s disruptive, proprietary fuel cell technology combined with a unique business approach represents a significant barrier to entry for other power companies seeking to enter the market place. We are able to deliver a compelling solution for the vast untapped distributed power management market in India. We also see scope to replicate this model across emerging markets in Africa and Southeast Asia.”