New GE Battery Brings Major Technological Advances to Cell Tower Backup 

Half the size with 10 times the life, recyclable, and greener – the Durathon Battery released recently by GE is the whole package. Created for cell tower power back up, a role traditionally left to outdated battery technology and diesel generators, GE has once again changed the game with stunning innovation.

The market will surely be there for these impressive batteries, which rely on halides, a reaction between electrically charged sodium and nickel compounds. The FCC requires wireless carriers to have backup power at most of their cell sites to help prevent widespread outages due to natural disasters and other power interruptions.

The article in Scientific American states, “GE claims that towers operating in remote regions sometimes rely on their diesel generators up to 16 hours each day, due to intermittent disruptions in power. By the company’s calculations, a Durathon battery installation—as opposed to one using lead-acid batteries—could cut diesel generator use in half in those areas. This in turn could cut the generator’s CO2 emissions by about nine metric tons per year, according to the company.”

In fact, GE has already accepted an order from an engineering firm in South Africa for 6,000 of these state-of-the-art batteries to provide backup telecom power in Nigeria, a country known for its power outages.