Cellular base stations, the backbone of the mobile phone network, have seen a large increase in the number of installed units around the world. From the hundreds of thousands years ago, this number has now grown to several million units, which pose a significant threat to the environment due to a large carbon footprint left by the consumed energy generated from fossil fuel powered generators, in most cases.

It's the base stations that are in remote areas that are the real problem, mostly in the developing countries, where power infrastructure is virtually non-existent in remote areas. In these cases operators turn to diesel powered generators for electricity. Apart from the obvious pollution problem, operators also lose money due to diesel shipment thefts, amounting to millions of dollars in damage. The solution is to go green by introducing wind and solar energy.

According to In-Stat's research, the following trends are evolving:

- by 2014, more than 230,000 cellular base stations in developing countries will be solar or wind powered,
- the number of renewables powered base stations is to grow 30% annually,
- off-grid stations mostly located in Africa, South Asia (including India), South America, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Their report, "Green Base Stations: Renewable Energy Becomes a Reality in Cellular Infrastructure", also covers the market for cellular base stations in the developing countries. It's available for USD 3495 on In-Stat's website.

There have been examples of cullular operators going green, like the mobile phone company in the Philipines which uses wind power or the Finish company Elisa whose mobile network is also powered by wind.