New Delhi Telecom firms will make annual energy savings of as much as R10,000 crore over the next eight years if they adopt the Centre’s green telecom directive and phase out diesel consumption by 2020, a report released by an international NGO said on Tuesday.

According to the green directive, service providers have to ensure at least 75% of all telecom towers in rural areas and 33% in urban areas run on hybrid power — a combination of renewable energy and grid power — by 2020.