Telecom Towers
Why is a cell tower the application to watch? India has roughly 700,000 to 800,000 telecom towers, each drawing a few kilowatts around the clock, with diesel as the backup. Reliance's network has 200,000 suitable towers.
One unit sits between every source and the load
The schematic from /applications/towers/, lifted into an isometric projection so the four sources read as four objects in one place. Fixed camera, fixed frame.
The sources this site has
Tower online · sources feeding it 4 of 4
Illustrative cycle, not measured site data. Schematic, not a wiring diagram: it shows where the unit sits relative to each source and to the load.
Four sources, one unit, and the tower it feeds. The parts are grouped, not placed where they stand on a real site. Current moves only on the runs that are carrying.
Power is the hard part of a tower
Radios, cooling and backup all draw continuously, and the site is frequently sited for coverage rather than for access to reliable power. Three constraints show up on almost every deployment.
Towers are power hungry
A tower draws a few kilowatts, around the clock, and its radios need power every minute of the day, whichever source is carrying the load.
Diesel is a running cost
On a weak grid the generator runs for hours every day, and fuel and generator service become part of the running cost of the site. Every hour solar carries is an hour the generator doesn't.
Off-grid generation is challenging
Where there is no grid at all, the site has to make and manage its own power. That is where diesel most often fills the gap, and where a PV inverter has to do more than feed a healthy grid.
Fewer units on site
The Quad optimizes four PV modules with a single microinverter. One unit per four panels instead of one per panel means fewer devices to install, commission and revisit.
Independent tracking per panel
Four DC input channels, each with its own peak-power tracking. A shaded or soiled module is held to itself rather than pulling its neighbours down.
Lose four panels, not the array
A central inverter fault takes the whole array offline. One Quad failing doesn't take down the rest of the array.
All-AC output
Conversion happens at the array. What runs down the structure is AC, with no high-voltage DC string on a tower nobody visits weekly.
Panel-level DC stays low, roughly 40 to 60 volts per module, against the 400 to 700 volts a string inverter can put on the same roof, depending on string length. There is no string here, so there is no string voltage to manage.
Built for the long horizon
No failure-prone electrolytic capacitors; long-life components matched to the 25-year design life of PV panels. The temperature, enclosure, efficiency and warranty ratings a tower site specifies are in the table below, each with its source.
Shade, panel by panel
Against a string inverter the Quad wins on shade. Against a one-per-panel microinverter, per-panel shade performance is a tie, both track every module. The Quad's advantage there is unit count and installed cost, not harvest.
The addressable picture
Millions of towers, most of them running on diesel for part of every day.
One unit sits between every source and the load
Sparq's inverter runs on the grid, off the grid and alongside a diesel generator, and moves between them as a tower's power changes. That is what makes it a fit for telecom towers.
When the grid goes down, the inverter does not simply shut off. It can make its own AC power from the solar panels and keep the tower's critical equipment running through the outage. While the sun is up, solar carries the load without a battery; storage covers the night.
In Jio's installation demonstration, the switch from grid power to off-grid power takes about five seconds.
Switch a source off and watch the tower. Try cutting the grid.
What a tower site actually specifies
The ratings a site engineer asks for, from our Quad2 datasheets. Off-grid and generator operation is the dual-mode (DM) edition, the one a tower site uses. The full table is on the Quad2 page.
| At a tower site | Quad2 · Q2000-4102 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The array | ||
| Modules per unit | 4, each on its own peak-power tracking | Datasheet, both editions, Sep 23 2025DM datasheetGT datasheet |
| DC input power | 2000 W | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Module rating per channel (STC) | up to 680 Wp | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Maximum input DC current | 16 A per channel | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| The site | ||
| Grid connection | 208 V L-L from 3-phase · 240 V L-L from split-phase · 230 V L-N from single-phase | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Maximum continuous output | 2000 W at 52 °C (208 V) · 2000 W at 60 °C (240 V and 230 V) | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Off-grid AC output | 90–245 V, 55 Hz nominal, 54–56 Hz range dual-mode edition only | Datasheet Q2000-4102 DM, Sep 23 2025. The grid-tied edition carries no off-grid sectionDM datasheet |
| Switchover on loss of grid | about 5 seconds before the load is carried off-grid, as demonstrated | Jio's own installation demonstration, JIOSPARQ install video 8:22–8:44. Not a datasheet figure; a demonstration, not a ratingWatch it at 8:22 |
| Efficiency | ||
| Maximum efficiency | 97.5 % | Datasheet, both editions; also the July 2022 v1.0 manual, p. 51DM datasheetGT datasheetManual v1.0, p. 51 |
| CEC efficiency | 97 % | Datasheet, both editions; also the July 2022 v1.0 manual, p. 51DM datasheetGT datasheetManual v1.0, p. 51 |
| MPPT efficiency | 99.85 % static · 99.8 % dynamic | Datasheet, both editions; also the July 2022 v1.0 manual, p. 51DM datasheetGT datasheetManual v1.0, p. 51 |
| Standby consumption | < 30 mW | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| A structure nobody visits weekly | ||
| Enclosure rating | NEMA 6, IP-67 | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Ambient operating temperature | −40 to +65 °C (−40 to +149 °F) | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Relative humidity | 0–100 %, condensing | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Weight | 3.3 kg (7.3 lb) | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Cooling | natural convection, no fans | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Standard limited warranty | 12 years | Datasheet Q2000-4102, both editions, Sep 23 2025DM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Extended warranty | Up to 25 years on both grid-tied and dual-mode editions, subject to the extended-warranty terms | Confirmed by Sparq, October 20, 2026Request warranty terms |
| Design life | 25 years. Design life is not a warranty term | Datasheet Q2000-4102, both editions, Sep 23 2025DM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Grid interconnection | ||
| Certifications listed for India | BIS IS 16221 (Part 2) · BIS IS 16169 | Quad2 datasheets, both editions, Sep 23 2025DM datasheetGT datasheetFull certification list |
| Protection | programmable anti-islanding · integrated GFDI · galvanic isolation · abnormal voltage or frequency trip in under 200 ms | Datasheet, both editionsDM datasheetGT datasheet |
| Datasheet, both editions 19 | ||
| Datasheet Q2000-4102 DM 1 | ||
| Jio's own installation demonstration 1 | ||
| Sparq warranty confirmation 1 | ||
| Not published 3 | ||
Bring us onsite
Tell us your tower's load, how reliable the grid is, and how long the generator runs. We'll tell you what the Quad can do at that site.