American Tower Corporation a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate, says it plans to expand its solar energy park in order to support the sustainable expansion of its neutral fibre optic network in Brazil.
Called Frutal II, the unit is being installed in the municipality of Frutal in the state of Minas Gerais, where the company already has a plant of this type.
The Tele.Síntese news portal says that, with this expansion, the American Tower distributed generation project will expand from 4,900 to 7,200 solar panels, an increase of approximately 50% in installed capacity. The panels will produce energy for 100% of the company's fibre optic unit.
This growth is described as part of the company’s plan, following the launch in 2019 of the first neutral FTTH network in Brazil; this ended 2022 by passing approximately one million homes.
The clean energy source is directly connected to the public electricity distribution network and was developed in partnership with CGC Energia, an expert in the design, financing, building and renting of photovoltaic power plants. The goal is to reduce an emission of 430 tons of CO² that goes into the atmosphere annually.
The American Tower fibre optic network now reaches the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Goiás, in addition to more than 120 cities in Minas Gerais, passing the 25,000 kilometre mark.
In addition to the fibre network, the solar plant can serve street-level coverage solutions, meeting the demands of new models of shared infrastructure that will arrive with 5G and consume more energy.
