Orange leads greentech - By Doug Moheny

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Feb 17 2011)

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   Orange -- France Telecom's mobile and Internet brands and one of the largest phone companies in the world -- picked up the "Best Mobile Technology for Emerging Markets" awards this week at the GSMA's Global Mobile Awards 2011; Orange and Tenesol  previously picked up an award from the Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards in 2010 for "Green Power Innovation."   Its' solar base station program saves more than 10 million liters of fuel and 20,000 tons of CO2 per year while providing 6 GWh of energy across its Africa and Middle East (AMEA) cellular network.

   The solar powered base station program started in Senegal in 2007 with a trial deployment of 35 base stations, reports solar panel partner Tenesol. Ericsson has also contributed time into the project by optimizing battery recharge and equipment for the best performance.  Sweetening the green aspects, solar panels are produced and shipped locally from Cape Town, South Africa.

    Depending on who is counting, there are over 1,000 base stations deployed across 13 countries in Africa and the Middle East as the program became Orange's global template for the creation of "off-grid" telecom sites in Africa and the Middle East (AMEA). Each base station saves at least 35 tons of CO2 and 13,000 liters of fuel per year. 

   More importantly, the technology is starting to spread beyond AMEA and into Europe.   Orange Armenia got its first solar base station in December 2010 while Ericsson is trialing a solar base station with Telecom Italia.  Expect other carriers start to roll solar basis stations in Europe to fill in coverage and cut carbon over the next few years.

   Orange's bigger green strategy is focused on getting a 20 percent reduction of its CO2 emissions by 2020 and a 15 percent reduction of the company's energy consumption -- all the while continuing to grow and prosper -- yes, read that again, "Grow and prosper," not "bleed red ink and die miserably trying to be politically correct" over the next 5 years. 

   France Telecom is bullish on Africa and the Middle East, so matching solar base stations is one part in a tailored strategy that includes e-banking services via phone and using 20 second voice recordings instead of texting due to concerns over illiteracy.  The company also has plenty of fiber around Africa in anticipation of a boom in voice and data traffic, so local data centers won't be far behind.

   And it's likely most (but not all) of those data centers will be green from day 1 -- power optimized to deliver the most computing per watt and using a combination of wind, water, and solar power in lieu of a dependence on oil and gas.   Perhaps the developed world's next green data center concepts will come out the builds taking place in Africa today.

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