TowerXchange continues our tour of some of the world’s most interesting TowerPower solutions by speaking with Solar BK, who have installed award-winning microgrids on some of Vietnam’s isolated islands, and who are now seeking to apply similar technologies in Africa.
TowerXchange: Thanks for speaking to us today. Where do Solar BK fit into the passive infrastructure ecosystem?
Nguyen Tuy Anh, Partner, Business Development, Solar BK:
Solar BK is based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We design alternative power supply solutions, including solar, wind and DG complete energy systems. Our solutions are derived from the Research Center for Thermal Equipment and Renewable Energy (RECTERE) in the Ho Chi Minh City University Technology R&D Centre, and we became a registered company in Vietnam in 2007 serving renewable energy Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma to telecoms and other industries.
Solar was expensive five years ago, but the industry has changed, and we’ve been able to bring costs down by localising a lot of material.
We’re interested in the African market. There’s lots of potential for alternative power suppliers and we’re finalising a deal with a local agent.
We’ve installed 20MW of alternative energy solutions in Vietnam; primarily wind and solar systems on our islands. Inland Vietnam has high penetration of electricity, but our islands are highly dependent on expensive diesel, and delivery is expensive, so the environment is similar to some parts of Africa. We’ve also completed off-grid projects in Myanmar and Cambodia, where there’s lower electricity penetration.
TowerXchange: Please tell us some of your clients and project experience?
Nguyen Tuy Anh, Partner, Business Development, Solar BK:
We won a Global Energy Award for our work designing, delivering and installing off grid alternative power supply on some of the isolated islands in South East Asia. There was an urgent need to supply power to the Navy and to these islands, which can take weeks to reach, and which had no grid power previously. We installed 10MW of solar and wind energy systems in 6 months, and Viettel – a leading mobile operator in Vietnam - connected to our installed hybrid wind and solar system.
The choice of renewable energy solution depends on site load and climactic conditions. Not everywhere works for wind energy, so we need a good survey to get information about a site. For example, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia all have good solar conditions, but there may not be adequate wind available. A full hybrid could have any combination of energy sources, such as 70% solar, 20% wind, 10% genset; much depends on how many days autonomy are desired.
TowerXchange: What is Solar BK’s interest in Africa?
Nguyen Tuy Anh, Partner, Business Development, Solar BK:
We’ve been talking about all 54 countries in Africa, but their requirements vary significantly. Some are very developed, such as South Africa, Egypt and Algeria. Others have a very unstable grid, with mobile penetration still low, lots of room for growth, and the potential for more licenses to be issued.
We’ve noted the trend to transfer assets from MNOs to towercos. Towercos need focused solutions for off-grid and unstable grids, and our DC solar hybrid with monitoring system is the right product with the right design to reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). We’re able to leverage outdoor solutions and active cooling to keep the energy footprint down to 2kW.
It’s critical to choose the right product for the market. A good battery backup, lead-acid for good grid sites or deep cycle batteries for unreliable grids, extends the lifecycle of your assets. Choosing the wrong battery can mean opex costs exceed capex savings, and if you need to change batteries every six months, you risk downtime.
In combination with VNTower (see VNTower’s profile here) we’re able to offer a total site solution including the tower, power supply, civil work and project management. The investment will be less than buying each component separately, while a ready made complete solution also saves time – and time to market is money!
TowerXchange: How do you design a site to future-proof for upgrade to battery hybrid or eventually renewable energy?
Nguyen Tuy Anh, Partner, Business Development, Solar BK:
The operator or towerco needs to make the right business case for each site. I don’t believe every site should be a hybrid. In cities, tower operators will use the grid. Tower operators will choose the right hybrid solutions for off-grid sites based on the TCO, taking into account opex such as the local fuel delivery costs, and capex, such as the fact that the performance life of solar can be fifteen years, while you may have to change the DG every three years. So renewables often won’t be feasible if you only look at a three to four year TCO. For example, in Cambodia Viettel calculated an RoI payback on hybrid energy in three to four years.
The capex per site is hard to estimate – much depends on site load. Old generation BTS’s consume 3kW. New 1kW base station technology from Ericsson and Huawei makes the hybrid business case more feasible. Capex ranges between US$30-100k depending on load.
TowerXchange: What are the safety and quality standards you use?
Nguyen Tuy Anh, Partner, Business Development, Solar BK:
Both Solar BK and VNTower are certified suppliers to Ericsson and Huawei, and we follow their standards.
