Bangalore based Indo-Chinese joint venture ALTA-XinTong Solar Tech is in the process of finalizing a deal to sell 2,000 solar powered systems to power mobile phone towers, said a top company official.
"We are in advanced stages of finalising 2,000 solar power systems for leading tower companies in India under zero investment plan. The deployment of these solar power systems would create job opportunities for more than 70,000 skilled and semi-skilled technicians in India," managing director E.M. Abdul Manaf told reporters here.
The company is a 65:35 joint venture between India's ALTA Energy Technologies and China's solar system solution provider XinTong.
According to Manaf, there are around 300,000 telecom sites in India, out of which over 30,000 are in off-grid rural locations.
These off-grid sites are running on diesel 24 hours a day. An autonomous solar system will be ideal alternative to diesel generators as a power source. This will help operators avoid high transportation cost, diesel theft, and diesel generator maintenance cost, he said.
According to the firm's chief technology officer Teckee Shih, the company arranges funding for the purchase of the systems.
He said around 9,000 cell phone towers in China are being powered by XinTong's solar power systems.
"We will set up a demonstration unit and prove the savings that the tower operator will make. The primary condition for us to set up the demonstration unit is that once we show the savings, the operator has to place a minimum order for 100 units," Shih said.
On the logic of compelling the company to place an order for minimum quantity, he said it costs around 2.7 million to set up one demonstration unit.
"We are arranging finance and once the savings are proved the tower company has to place the order," Shih told IANS.
He declined to name the company that would provide the funding.
Shih said the joint venture company sources solar panels and batteries from Indian sources and imports controls from China.
