There’s much debate today about energy – specifically about the feasibility of “alternative” energy sources. Some say they’re the only viable long-term solution, others say they’ll never be ready for prime time. They’re certainly not a realistic source of power today, but their advocates say with proper research and investment they will be tomorrow.

A recent paper put forward by Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) notes that for communities without a stable communications infrastructure, where wireless networks open significant possibilities for economic and social development, “up to now, costly and environmentally unsound generators have been the only viable option.”

 

The paper’s authors suggest that developments in alternative energy technology “are creating solutions that meet the needs of remote, rural communities in developing countries and also provide network operators in more established markets with the ability to reduce their energy costs and carbon footprint.”

 

Rich Garafola, director of sustainable power solutions at Alcatel-Lucent, thinks that one way to respond to the demand for alternative energy could be by converting pioneering programs into industrial-scale strategies. Many of these strategies do come from the Alcatel-Lucent Alternative Energy Program, which “includes the world’s first alternative energy laboratory and pilot site dedicated to providing mass-produced alternative energy-powered solutions for wireless network operators,” Garafola says.

Alcatel-Lucent’s paper finds that access to telephone and Internet services “provides an impetus for both economic and social development” in less developed countries, but that finding reliable electricity sources to power the base stations “has been a substantial obstacle.”

 

Substantial indeed – numbers cited by the paper claim that “2.6 billion people in the world live in communities with no reliable electricity source – or no electricity at all.”

 

The use of alternative energy sources such as solar and wind-based power, combined with more energy-efficient equipment and networks, then, could make it possible for communities without access to electricity to have wireless communications networks, as well as a few other amenities.

 

Garafola points to the 2008 launch of an Alcatel-Lucent solar-powered wireless base station in Dagadji, Cote d’Ivoire, as having “a profound and positive impact on the community,” as over the 12 months following the launch, “the population of Dagadji tripled as people from surrounding areas resettled to take advantage of the improved economic and social opportunities.”

 

In recent years, Alcatel-Lucent has installed more than 300 such solar-powered wireless base stations in sub-Saharan Africa.