100% SOLAR PV POWERED BTS TOWER

A BTS (Base Transceiver Station) or a cellular phone tower is an important part of Indonesias telecommunication
infrastructure. Telkomsel (one of the leading cellular phone operators in Indonesia, coincidentally also our
customer) claims a 95% coverage of Indonesia as mentioned on their
website, http://www.telkomsel.com/corporate/why-telkomsel

BTS Tower in Sangatta, Kalimantan, Indonesia
In remote areas of Indonesia where there are no grid supplied electricity, BTS stations are usually powered with
diesel fueled generators. Normal prices for the fuel at this time is about Rp 10,000/L; however in these remote
areas this price can double or even triple and higher. In addition to high fuel consumption costs, maintenance of
the generators can also be expensive, not only in parts and labor time working on the unit. It can also be
prohibitively expensive to send a skilled technician to do the routine maintenance on the generators on a regular
basis.
Therefore, we installed a solar PV system that utilizes most of the space normally leased for this type of towers.
Since August 2012, this system has been operational independently and without a generator backup. Periodic
check up of the system shows that during extended cloudy and even rainy days, there is enough solar panels to
make up the energy deficit and fill the batteries again at least once ever 10-14 days. Incidentally, on this
particular site, we did not only the solar PV system but also the tower construction and the civil work.

24 x 2000Ah@2VDC; 150kg each
With a microwave transceiver and two BTS equipment installed (a 3G unit and a 2G unit), as well as the required
lighting systems, this site consumes 26kWh of electricity per day with a maximum power required of less than
1500 Watts.
Solar PV System Specs:
60 x 205Wp solar panels = 12,300 Wp total
24 x 2000Ah@2VDC batteries = 96kWh total (almost 4 days of autonomy)
3 x 80Amp Outback FM80 charge controller = 240 Amp max charging current
Average energy production from the solar panels on this site = 46kWh/day

Our technician commissioning the system

Maximum of 240 Amps of charging current

Finished Product