Intelligent Energy signs off £1.2bn India deal
Yesterday Intelligent Energy announced a deal to provide clean power to telecom towers in India that will bring contracted revenues of about £1.2bn over 10 years. The transaction, described as a “major milestone in hydrogen fuel cell development”, will see the British company buy contracts from Indian network services provider GTL Ltd to supply energy-management services to more than 27,400 mobile telecom towers. Through its Indian subsidiary, Essential Energy, Intelligent Energy intends to transition around 70% of the total managed towers from diesel power to hydrogen fuel cells.

LOUGHBOROUGH, England & BANGALORE, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Intelligent Energy, the global energy technology company, today announced it will purchase contracts from GTL Limited to supply energy-management services across more than 27,400 telecom towers in India. This landmark deal, which was signed post UK market close on Wednesday 30 September and, represents a major milestone in hydrogen fuel cell development and is expected to have a transformative impact on India’s energy market by creating high efficiencies and cost savings alongside reducing emissions.

“This transaction delivers contracted revenues of approximately £1.2 billion over ten years, which is a major development for Intelligent Energy and the industry,” said Henri Winand, CEO of Intelligent Energy Holdings. “Our technology will not only help to bring a stable, reliable power supply to these towers, it will also demonstrate the full power of hydrogen fuel cells today, and in the future.”

The deployment of hydrogen fuel-cell power to Indian telecom towers marks a watershed transformation of the Indian power grid, previously faulted for stifling India’s economic growth due to persistent unreliability. Over 70% of India’s circa 425,000 telecom towers experience power outages of approximately eight hours per day leaving nearly half of the country’s 935 million mobile phone users frequently disconnected for extended periods. Diesel generators are currently the main back-up power source, but as a fuel, diesel is costly, inefficient, and emits high levels of CO 2, NO x and harmful carcinogenic particulate emissions. Hydrogen fuel cells are expected to be more efficient and cleaner and can be more economical on a total cost of ownership basis than diesel generators.

This deal demonstrates India’s long-term commitment to fuel-cells and builds on its recently announced deployment of hydrogen fuel cells on telecom towers.

Essential Energy, a subsidiary of Intelligent Energy in India, will assume the power management for over 27,400 mobile telecom towers; a figure equivalent to 50 per cent of the U.K.’s telecom towers and 13 per cent of the U.S.’ Essential Energy intends to transition around 70 per cent of the managed telecom towers from diesel power to hydrogen fuel cells throughout their contracts’ tenure.

Winand added, “Using our technology, India can leapfrog into an information-driven future without assuming the costs and experiencing the difficulties of first implementing a conventional energy grid. This deal sets a significant precedent for shaping India’s energy future.”

About Intelligent Energy

Intelligent Energy Holdings plc is an energy technology group which develops efficient and clean hydrogen fuel cell power systems for the global automotive, consumer electronics, distributed power and generation markets – from powering zero-emission vehicles to compact energy packs for mobile devices and stationary power units for the always-on infrastructure.

Working with international companies, Intelligent Energy aims to embed its technology in mass market applications to solve the challenges of continuous power and productivity, by creating everyday energy solutions to power people’s lives. The Group’s intellectual property and expertise is based around proprietary fuel cell technologies, which are the product of over 25 years of research and development. Its patent portfolio includes more than 900 patents granted (and over 1000 patents pending) across more than 400 patent families. The Group also maintains a significant body of confidential know-how and trade secrets.

With its principal facility and headquarters in Loughborough, UK, the company also has operations in India, Japan and Singapore, a commercial office in Silicon Valley, USA and development facilities co-located at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission in Grenoble and at NASA in Florida, USA. Intelligent Energy Holdings plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: IEH).

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