Bouygues Telecom

The purpose of this project was to validate Fuel Cell technology with its Hydrogen logistics as an alternative solution to supply power to Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) for mobile telephony in remote sites that are difficult to connect to the standard electrical network.

The Fuel Cell powered a BTS relay continuously (24/7). During the demonstration phase, the Fuel Cell was supplied with Hydrogen without interruption and any potential maintenance operations on the system were anticipated, thanks to the use of the Air Liquide telemonitoring system, TeleFLO™.

The site layout was carefully designed in consideration of accessibility for hydrogen deliveries. Since the antenna was located 400 meters from the road but in a place where only the first 200 meters were negotiable, engineers from Axane and Air Liquide had to come up with a specific layout for installing the Comm Pac ™  cabinet and storing the Hydrogen.

Thoroughout the project, Bouygues Telecom and Air Liquide worked in  close collaboration to emphasize safety and operability to minimize all risks and thereby maximize site safety.

Today, this project has allowed Bouygues Telecom, Axane and Air Liquide to validate Fuel cell technology and Hydrogen logistics at remote sites that are not connected to the standard electrical network and more specifically in the field of mobile telephony.

Validations

· 2 500 h in operation
· fuel Cell start up at - 10°C
· remote management and monitoring (to optimize on-site maintenance according to field operational data and online trouble shooting)
· Hydrogen storage and logistics at remote sites

More Information

Watch the report on the site of Thil (near Toulouse in France) in French