Green Power for Mobile (GPM) has been announced by GSMA and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), private sector arm of the World Bank. The new project is specifically targeted at developing market off grid operators, who so far have mostly used diesel aggregates for powering their cellular stations in remote areas which don't have access to the power grid. Since there can be very many of these substations in particular areas of underdeveloped regions, it is necessary to introduce the supply of clean energy in order to reduce the carbon footprint of these stations, which when combined on a greater scale, is quite significant.

The GSMA has aimed its efforts at 118,000 off grid renewable energy base stations, which are to be installed by 2012. The announced program will also server as a catalyst to help move things along and invoke industrial response that will continue the initial momentum and complete the planned installations.

According to ABI Research, some 137,000 off grid renewable energy base stations are anticipated by 2013, although the research company sees greater opportunity in the on-grid base station market, where these stations would be supplemented by renewable energy such as solar or wind. More than 200,000 of these on grid stations are anticipated by 2013.

Furthermore, ABI Research states that the announced GPM program will be welcomed by many existing off grid celular operators who are burning cash at the moment, powering their base stations using diesel fuel.

This is not the first initiative to switch to renewable energy in powering remote base stations. Efforts have been made before, although this may be the first larger scale organized initiative that will hopefully catch on and spread widely.

[source: ABI Research]