Chinese vendor Huawei has paired with Ethio Telecom to deploy solar panels at some of Ethio's tower sites.

The company confirmed it had completed the deployment of the first batch of its solar-on-tower products.

According to Huawei, it's the first deployment of its kind in Africa, and is part of Ethio's plans to push for cleaner energy applications.

Multiple operators across the African continent have deployed solar panels at cell tower sites previously, though most are ground-based installations rather than on-tower panels.

The solar-on-tower sites integrate photovoltaic panels on telecom towers, which Huawei claims can address the challenges of limited land and insufficient space for installing solar power systems in cities.

Huawei says the purpose of its solar-on-tower site is to address the issue of land constraints in Addis Ababa. The issue of space is making it difficult for telcos such as Ethio to adopt more energy-efficient technology.

Ethio's installation enabled the site to generate and use its own solar power within just two days.

Based on the first deployment, the solar power supply at the sites can last up to four hours, while diesel generator use is correspondingly reduced from six hours to two hours – a 40 percent reduction in fuel consumption per site, said Huawei.

The vendor said it will continue to work with Ethio on other ICT-energy infrastructure products, as Ethio seeks to reduce carbon emissions on its network.