Cell towers a buzz with power

March 11th, 2008 · No Comments · Environment, Going Green, GreenTech
Post written by Jason

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Currently, there are over 200,000 cell towers spread throughout the United States each using somewhere around 4 to 8 times the normal power usage of an average household.According to David Twiddy of the AP cell phone companies are starting to think about powering towers with wind turbines or solar power with a hydrogen fuel cell backup power supply and geothermal cooling for their computer systems. The cell phone industry has a long way to go in “greening” itself and as long as the consumers don’t make a demand for cleaner, more earth friendly solutions it’ll will take the industry even longer to develop such solutions.Wireless service providers like Sprint/Nextel have been looking into alternative energy since 2004 and have deployed hydrogen fuel cells to some 65,000 cell tower sites and are experimenting with wind power and geothermal cooling at their headquarters. The reliability and lower emissions are the main draws to use these hydrogen fuel cell backup power sources, but another advantage is the tax incentives offered by states for the use of alternative power.I can’t wait to see what happens when more consumers start to care and let their dollars do the voting on what kind of products they want to see hit the market.Source

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