Ryse Energy and Bladon Microturbine Sign Strategic Clean Energy Partnership for Off-Grid Telecoms Sector
Bladon and Ryse Energy announced a strategic partnership at TowerXchange Dubai, combining microturbines and wind power for off-grid telecom towers.
TowerXchange, Dubai, 12 October 2021: Bladon and Ryse Energy announced a strategic partnership combining Bladon's multi-fuel microturbine generators with Ryse Energy's renewable wind technology, aimed squarely at the off-grid telecoms sector's twin problems of cost and carbon.
Two technologies, one hybrid solution
Ryse Energy, headquartered in Masdar, Abu Dhabi, had by 2021 installed more than 4,000 wind turbines across all seven continents, with a product range spanning 3 kW to 60 kW per unit. Pairing that renewable generation with Bladon's microturbine gensets was designed to let telecom tower operators draw as much as 90% of their site power from renewable sources, while cutting diesel consumption by up to 90% as well.
Where liquid fuel was still required to cover gaps in wind resource, the partnership pointed to HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) as a drop-in option compatible with Bladon's fuel-flexible architecture, offering 90% less CO2 than conventional diesel without any need to modify the engine.
The scale of the off-grid diesel problem
The announcement set out the scale of the challenge the partnership was addressing. Nearly half of towers across Sub-Saharan Africa, and 16% of towers across South and Southeast Asia, were off-grid or reliant on unreliable bad-grid connections, and more than 80% of that off-grid and bad-grid power still came from diesel generators. Across the mobile industry as a whole, diesel gensets powering towers were estimated to have produced 7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2020, around 3% of the sector's total emissions.
Against that backdrop, tower companies and mobile network operators were reported to be planning more than US$4 billion of renewable energy investment across telecom infrastructure over the following five years, a scale of spending that underlined why a hybrid wind and microturbine solution was of commercial as well as environmental interest.
Reliability with minimal maintenance
Beyond the fuel and carbon savings, the partnership was pitched on operational grounds. Combining Ryse Energy's wind turbines with Bladon's microturbine generators required only one site visit per year for maintenance, a significant reduction in operating cost and site risk compared with conventional diesel-only setups that demand frequent refuelling and servicing, and which are exposed to fuel theft in remote locations.
“Combining Bladon's microturbine and Ryse Energy's renewable energy solutions, solves the challenge of balancing costs and carbon footprint. Bladon and Ryse Energy's clean power technology provide maximum reliability in delivering primary power for remote, rural off-grid sites, or to sites that are noise and air quality sensitive. With only one site visit required per year for maintenance, this solution delivers maximum autonomy, reducing operating costs, increasing equipment operating life and virtually eliminating carbon emissions for almost nine months of the year. With Bladon's fuel flexible architecture, emissions can be further reduced using low carbon fuels, such as HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) which has 90% less CO2 than diesel.”
“The strategic partnership between Bladon and Ryse Energy is a game-changer for the off-grid telecoms sector. The partnership will increase renewable energy consumption on-site, whilst reducing operating costs, service costs, fuel theft and environmental pollution. Bringing two innovative UK manufacturers together to offer a best-in-class solution will help the industry achieve its ambitious climate targets.”
An industry under pressure to green its networks
The partnership was framed by TowerXchange as part of a wider industry shift, driven by both regulatory pressure and shareholder expectations, to expand renewable energy use on tower sites while continuing to meet surging demand for broadband coverage, often on sites with limited physical space for additional equipment.
“The drive to deploy more renewable sources of energy on telecom tower sites is increasing at a pace never seen before due to regulatory and shareholders pressures to satisfy increased demand for broadband services, and in parallel reduce greenhouse gas emissions while considering the space constraints of many sites. Over the next five years towercos and MNOs intend to spend over US$4bn on renewable and sustainable energy solution to tackle this challenge and this partnership between Ryse Energy and Bladon is a major step in the right direction towards greening the network and providing a more sustainable future for the telecoms sector.”
This article is part of the Bladon archive and reflects the position at the date of publication.