BT Group commenced a trial of its first self-powering mobile mast, following through on a promise to deploy environmentally friendly network technologies in line with its green agenda.

Located in the Shropshire Hills in the West Midlands of the UK, the mobile tower runs on renewable energy sources, 70 per cent of which come from on-site solar panels and wind turbines, BT explained in a statement.

The self-powered mast is now fully active, delivering 4G and 5G networks to EE customers in the area. Deployment of the mast will serve as a trial to assess future deployments of similar technology across “hundreds of identified sites”.

BT said it selected Shropshire Hills following an environmental assessment which calculated the area’s “viability for renewable power”, generated through solar and wind energy to charge batteries for the tower.

In the event there is insufficient power available, BT will use a backup generator which runs on hydrotreated vegetable oil, classified as green fuel and generated from a variety of waste or residual oil.

The sustainable mast is expected to provide 17,000 kWh of wind and solar energy annually and save upwards of £10,000 in costs.

“It’s paramount that we increase the energy-efficiency of our networks, and so we’re really excited about the potential of self-powering sites in enabling us to meet both our sustainability and connectivity ambitions,” said Greg McCall, chief networks officer at BT.

At a press briefing in February, BT executives opened up on plans to make network deployments more sustainable, pointing to the application of self-powered mobile masts.

BT also rolled out cell sleep technology in June, a software enabling certain sites into sleep mode during periods of low traffic to save energy use by 4.5 million kWh per year.