Warren Buffett Invests Millions In Novel Israeli Power Saving Tech

This article was first published on The Times of Israel and was re-posted with permission.

Bandwidth isn’t the only thing the burgeoning cell network is consuming more of. Already electricity costs account for a large chunk – as much as a third – of operating costs, and that amount will likely get larger as networks get bigger and more devices come on line.

All that energy use is due to the deployment of base stations, and as energy efficient as they are now nowadays, the sheer number needed is enough to put a strain on supplies in big cities (New York, for example, has 14,000 mobile phone base stations).

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eVolution’s tech saves power by turning cell towers on and off as needed.

To solve that problem, eVolution Networks has developed a big-data solution that examines the relationship between phones, usage rates, locations, energy costs, and other factors, to activate and deactivate base stations as needed.

And although it sounds like a technical, even prosaic solution, top investor Warren Buffett likes the idea – enough to invest in the company. eVolution announced this week that Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary IES Holding and GE Ventures have invested $22.5 million.

With its Smart Energy Solution (SES) technology, eVolution conducts both a thorough radio coverage analysis and a deep study of typical daily traffic patterns for each existing base station across the network and creates individual traffic and radio profiles for each. The information allows the network to list the stations that can be safely deactivated while still maintaining coverage and service integrity.

To continue reading this article on the TOI site, click here.

Photos: Serba Sembilan