Globe Telecom Inc. and Huawei Technologies (HT) are piloting a couple of off-grid green network technologies to connect far-flung areas in the Philippines.
Globe Chief Sustainability Officer and SVP Group Corporate Communications Yoly Crisanto made the announcement at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022, Barcelona, Spain.
The MWC, which Huawei Digital Power organized, invited Globe to talk about its initiative to halve emissions by 2030 and achieve Net Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) by 2050 via a low-carbon optical network.
"As mobile operators, how we influence the power sector has become an important component of our business," Crisanto pointed out in her presentation of the telco's best practices in carbon reduction strategies and the business value of digital and intelligent green technologies.
"All of us who practice sustainability and care for our planet will have to count the kilowatts, not just the megabytes,” she underscored.
Globe is piloting a solar solution for rural areas with limited or no access to digital technology.
The system uses six solar panels as power source and non-line-of-sight wireless backhaul technology via cellular relay to reach challenging terrains, such as mountains and valleys.
“We need to serve and connect off-grid communities as well, so we are piloting off grid solutions using only solar energy,” Crisanto noted.
Another option for deployment in off-grid sites and disaster-prone areas. is a hybrid power solution which includes solar panels to reduce carbon emissions from diesel fuel consumption.
This intelligent alternative solution provides reliable power supply using solar power as an initial source before shifting to diesel fuel.
“For disaster response, we need to harness solar before the gensets run on diesel fuel or even batteries,” she explained.
This is because carbon emissions rise during typhoons and other natural disasters when commercial power becomes unavailable for prolonged periods.
To further manage Globe’s climate impact, HT introduced green technologies to transform Globe’s cell sites, hubs, corporate offices, and data centers into low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission facilities.
Already, Globe has gone green through fully modular designs for on-demand deployment and flexible expansion, intelligent power supply incorporating lithium-ion battery, digital components, real-time status visualization and efficient systems maintenance.
Globe has also partnered with key industry experts to support its Climate Action strategy.
The telco started its decarbonization journey by shifting its high-energy utilization facilities to renewable energy through Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) bundled with Verified Emission Reduction (VER) certificates.
Since 2014, Globe has also deployed fuel cell systems, direct current and DC-Hybrid generators, lithium-Ion batteries, and free cooling systems in its network.
Globe is the first and only publicly-listed company in the Philippines committed to setting science-based targets aligned with the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal of the Paris Agreement.
The latter aims to keep global warming below catastrophic levels and achieve Net Zero GHG emissions.
The telco also joined Race to Zero, a UN-backed global campaign to halve global emissions by 2030 and deliver a healthier, fairer zero-carbon world by 2050.