Mobile base station electricity costs could rise by nearly 55% over the next five years unless operators address network inefficiencies and reduce reliance on non-renewable energy resources, according to a new report from Juniper Research. Its author, Dr Windsor Holden, said: “Operators in Africa and Asia who continue to rely on diesel for off-grid generators will find margins increasingly squeezed as their networks expand and diesel prices rise. We believe that unless a transition to generators powered by renewable energy is effected, then many such networks may no longer be financially viable within a few years.”

Other findings from the green base stations research include:

• Base stations are responsible for more than 70% of CO₂ emissions in the mobile use phase
• Operators should increasingly seek to utilise feederless sites and distributed site architecture as means of reducing inefficiency
• Adopting measures suggested under the transformational model will enable operators to reduce base station CO₂ emissions by up to 30%

Cellular News reports.