The heavy reliance on diesel has made the telecom segment a front-runner among diesel parity driven solar markets in India. Installation of solar on telecom towers is rapidly increasing.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has mandated the usage of renewable energy in 50% of the telecom towers in the rural areas and 20% in urban areas by 2015
Solar installation on telecom towers has reached 30 MW with average project size of 5-6 kW
Telecom towers are second only to Indian railways in terms of diesel consumption in India. Currently, 40% of installed towers are situated in regions with less than 12 hours of grid supply on average.Annual consumption of diesel in telecom towers is over 3 billion liters.The DoT has set renewable energy technology targets for telecom towers. Operators are obligated to switch 50% of the telecom sites in the rural areas and 20% of telecom sites in urban areas to a renewable technology by 2015.