Press Releases

Proven Provides Phone Power to Africa - June 2007

Phone giants Motorola have been working with Global wind turbine company Proven Energy to provide electricity to a mobile phone cell site in a remote area in Namibia. The pilot solution provides a feasible and efficient alternative to using fuel generators when a main grid connection is not available.

Most of Namibia’s population is isolated from the grid so it has never before been commercially viable to serve the area with a reliable and cost effective connection. The diesel generators previously used to supply electricity were proving very costly, required regular maintenance and were of course leaving a carbon footprint behind. Fortunately, the coastal location in Africa is blessed with sunshine during the day and high winds at night therefore making it a perfect site for Africa’s first exclusively wind and solar powered cell site. The cell site is now powered by a Proven 6 wind turbine plus 28 solar panels and will be closely monitored over the next 3 months.

Motorola has also been working with the GSM Association on the project.

“A key challenge in much of Africa is connecting people in off-grid locations and this project seeks to highlight to operators that wind and solar power is a real and cost effective alternative. We expect this pilot to become a showcase for the industry and to see replication of the model thereafter”,

said Dawn Hartley, Development Fund manager at the GSMA.

Motorola’s renewable energy solutions for powering wireless network cell sites are part of the company’s Reach GSM portfolio. For more information please review the Solar and Wind trial micro site at:

direct.motorola.com

For all media enquiries contact:

shelagh.mccreadie@provenenergy.com

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