Global renewable energy company Helix Wind, recently revealed its plans to initiate a technology demonstration and assess two small wind turbines to power cell phone towers in Southern California.
Apart from powering towers, the test will discover the viability of selling power back to the electrical grid under a Power Purchase Agreement. In association with Core Communications Group on behalf of its tower company client, Vertical Green, the test seems to be one of the first grid-connected cell sites powered by renewable energy in Southern California.
“Helix remains committed to developing innovative solutions that can power cell phone towers with wind power. We are actively pursuing opportunities in this space, and are excited to be working with Core Communications on a test so close to home. Even grid connected cell phone towers can benefit from renewable energy, and wind power can dramatically reduce the emissions and carbon footprint associated with them. Under the right conditions, the towers may even be able to produce surplus energy, providing an additional revenue stream to tower owners. We look forward to getting started on the test,” stated Ian Gardner, Helix Wind CEO.
Keith Pinter, chairman of Core Communications Group, mentioned, “Working with industry thought-leader Helix has been a pleasure, and we are anxiously awaiting the start of the tower testing phase. In addition to the turbines themselves, we’re looking forward to input from Helix related to power delivered, per-kW economics and the various renewable energy incentives available to our company.”
“Core Communications is committed to reducing the total cost of ownership for our wireless carrier clients as well as solving zoning challenges which may encumber 4G network deployments. We are excited about managing this deployment for highly innovative tower company Vertical Green, and following this proof-of-concept stage, we will explore advancing our relationship with Helix into a full rollout,” he added.
Presently, there are around 3,500 cell phone towers in Southern California, and with the continued expansion of broadband wireless, the data volume has risen two-fold in the past three years. It is also believed that an additional 1,000 to 1,200 towers need to be implemented over the next five years.
The turbines are scheduled for installation by early 2010 and the test will be carried out for one to three months.