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Flexenclosure claims 95% savings from ‘green’ site

Tony Chan | November 24, 2010 | 0 Comments

Swedish clean tech firm, Flexenclosure, claims that its off-grid base station infrastructure, E-site, can now save operators more than 90% in costs of operating and maintenance.

“E-site is Flexenclosure’s revolutionary and “green” off-grid base station site solution that is primarily run on renewable energy sources (sun and wind) with massive savings in diesel, operating expenses and maintenance visits – all controlled by an intelligent control system,” said Peter Karaszi from the firm in an email to Green Telecom Live.

According to Karaszi, the sites have been deployed in Kenya, resulting in a 95% savings in diesel while limited annual maintenance visits to one.

“Operating expenses in Kenya have been cut by 90%, which is massive considering that a typcal diesel run off-grid base station costs US$50,000 per year to operate (almost as much as it costs to install),” he said. “Typically, a mobile operator might have 5% of its base stations in rural areas without power grid access. These might account for half of the total base stations costs, base stations which in turn normally accounts for half of the network operator’s total operating expenses. That is, a few off-grid base stations run on diesel can swallow up as much as 25% of the operator’s total operating costs – unless you use site solutions powered by renewable energy sources. Needless to say, operators are rapidly becoming very interested in cost-effective base station solutions.”

The key to E-site is its ‘brain’ – a platform called Diriflex, which pushes efficiency levels up and above 90% as opposed to maybe 60% from simply plugging a wind turbine or solar panels into a base station, he continued.

E-site also comes with a feature called, Community Power, which allows surplus energy at base stations to be distributed to local communities surrounding the location. This should fit nicely with the GSMA’s newly launched Community Power for Mobile program.

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