MTN South Africa is actively investigating off-grid renewable energy alternatives to Eskom as it continues to battle the severe impact of Eskom power cuts on its network.

Dubbed as the “first in a series” of wind and solar projects, the launch forms part of a six-month plan, with completion targeted for the third quarter, and involves a small-scale field trial in Worcester in the Western Cape to be followed by a series of projects in the Eastern Cape, a “proven geographic destination for wind energy”.

“The solution avoids the need to work with complicated masts, guy wires or towers, and the windmills being used can be installed at various levels of a cell tower to harness more wind energy,” the company said in a statement on Thursday.

“A standout feature of this project is the seamless integration with MTN South Africa’s telecommunications equipment to provide hybrid renewable energy generation for [base stations] and other asset classes with low workload,” it said.

Deploying the technology will reduce the amount of diesel used at these sites. “It also increases power security per site, mitigating the effects of load shedding in line with MTN’s plans to bolster network resilience, with properly sized hybrid, wind, solar PV and battery arrays.”

The company said it has a four-phase green energy programme. Planned initiatives include onsite renewable deployment, offsite renewable power-purchase agreements, and driving energy efficiencies in MTN buildings and technical infrastructure.

Legacy hardware

This includes energy-efficient lighting replacement and the decommissioning and removal of legacy high-energy redundant hardware. “Further to the energy efficiencies at the technical buildings, the use of gas generators and a concentrated solar plant provide additional energy security while emitting fewer carbon emissions,” it said.