Renewable energy

Across the Group, electricity bought for our mobile networks from renewable sources reached 41 per cent, compared to an average of 38 per cent in 2005/06 or 17 per cent in 2004/05. 

The total consumption of electricity by O2’s mobile network has increased by 48 per cent since March 2004, but the amount of electricity bought from low-carbon or renewable sources has increased by 250 per cent over the same period.

We have agreed ways to procure greater quantities of green energy from several companies, including E.ON in the UK and Germany and Energia in Ireland:

• In the UK we are bound to current electricity supply contracts until 2008, but one supplier is already providing us with more green energy. We aim to buy all our directly bought electricity from renewable sources when we next negotiate our contract in June 2008.
  
• In April 2007, O2 Ireland formed a two-year agreement with Energia to source green energy for all O2 directly-bought electricity. Under the agreement Energia will supply all sites controlled by O2 throughout the country, including all O2 retail outlets and O2 masts. O2’s offices, including its headquarters and our customer-care centre in Limerick, have already been switched to green energy and a programme is under way to switch over all remaining sites nationwide.

During the year we had planned to run a solar panel trial on a switch site but a review of the project found that the pay-back on this solution would take too long to be viable.

We also completed a scoping study in the UK, as part of our work with the Carbon Trust, to see whether using large-scale wind turbines would be practicable for large corporate offices or call centres. Wind power, though plentiful, is not feasible in many locations because of proximity to homes and planning restrictions. However, we are pursuing one site where wind power may be a suitable alternative: further analysis is required during 2007.

O2 UK has an LPG generator installed in Yate and plan to assess whether this would be a viable alternative to diesel at other cell sites. This system can be combined with wind and solar power, which is a solution we are looking at for future implementation.

In Bavaria, O2 Germany has installed a mobile repeater fuelled by solar panels.

Fuel cells are based on advanced technology; they run on hydrogen instead of a battery and back up the base station. As a result there is no need to cool down the room for batteries. A pilot project in which one site had fuel-cell back-up started in Germany in autumn 2006. In 2007 ten more sites will follow. If the pilot succeeds, we plan to increase the number of fuel-cell sites.

In the UK, we are keen to support UK-based environmental engineering projects rather than offset our effects elsewhere.  We are currently working with a consultancy to investigate partnering with a renewable energy developer to provide new renewable energy sources.

¹ Electricity consumption is reported for all premises and operations where O2 is the direct customer. Rented premises are included
where possible, but some may be excluded. 2006 numbers include Telefónica O2 Czech Republic for the first time and include their
fixed-line operations.

² Corrected CO2 emissions take account of the amount of electricity purchased from either low-carbon sources (notably ‘Good Quality’
CHP schemes and waste incineration), or, renewable sources (notably wind and hydro).

Factors used to convert kWh electricity to tonnes CO2:
GQ CHP and waste incineration: 0.00028 (EDF who are the main supplier)
Renewable: 0.
Grid electricity: 0.00043 (UK, Defra 2005); 0.00049 (Germany, IEA 2002); 0.00067 (Ireland, IEA 2002); 0.00055 (Czech Republic, CEZ 2006).

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