Ethio Telecom Pioneers Africa’s First Solar-on-Tower Deployment with Huawei to Power Greener Networks

Ethiopia’s leading operator, Ethio Telecom,  in collaboration with Huawei , has announced the successful commercial deployment and stable operation of the first batch of Solar-on-Tower solution in Africa.

This collaboration marks a new phase for Ethio Telecom in its push for a green, low-carbon transformation. It will advance clean energy applications, build a green network, and set a new technological benchmark for African telecommunications.

The Solar-on-Tower solution innovatively integrates photovoltaic panels on telecom towers, effectively addressing the challenges of limited land and insufficient space for installing solar power systems in cities. Ethio Telecom’s installation enabled the site to generate and use its own solar power within just two days. Based on the first batch of Solar-on-Tower deployment, the solar power supply at the sites can last up to four hours, while diesel generator use is correspondingly reduced from six hours to two hours – a 40% reduction in fuel consumption per site.

Thousands of sites in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, are facing space constraints, making it impossible to adopt more energy-efficient technology such as traditional ground-based photovoltaic solutions. Solar-on-Tower represents the first solution to provide an efficient and feasible path for Africa’s telecommunications industry to accelerate the replacement of traditional energy with clean energy in space-constrained scenarios.

In the future, both Ethio Telecom and Huawei will continue to jointly build high-quality ICT energy infrastructure, promoting the greening and low-carbon transformation of networks and enhancing network resilience.