This is solar-powered base station on top of a mountain in Lapland (Finland).

Remote ICT infrastructures are embracing renewable energy for everything from earthquake mitigation in Japan to CO2e reduction in India to military microgrids in Afghanistan. Africa is now participating, as well.

The IEEE's GreenCom'09 conference noted: "The radio access network accounts for 80% of [cellular networks infrastructure] energy consumption. In developing countries, operators now spent more than half of their OPEX only for the diesel required to keep base station generators up and running. Increasing the energy efficiency of base stations has thus become a key challenge of mobile networks operators."

Africa Seer reports in January 2012 that Airtel Nigeria has inked an agreement with Ericsson "to upgrade 250 diesel powered stations across the country. The capacity building initiative would enable the company to harness solar and wind energy for the operation of its base stations." The article describes this as "the first of its kind in Nigeria." Statistics in the article imply that Airtel will be deploying conventional gen sets faster than renewable ones, so the company has not yet reached a 'green tipping point'.

A related challenge with ICT in developing countries is the availablity of sustainable charge stations for users' e-gear. Mark Kragh of UK solar installer KnowYourPlanet is using recycle reject solar panels to address this problem. The BBC reports, "For many in Africa there is little access to electricity due to mains power shortages. Infrastructure has not kept pace with the explosion in mobile phone ownership so it is not unusual for people to walk for several hours just to charge their phones. 'Often, charge points are driven by petrol or diesel generators, which are dangerous to operate and of course emit carbon dioxide and other pollutants…,' said Mr Kragh." Watch a video about how it is done.

Use of renewable energy to power remote ICT infrastructure is part of a larger trend in the powering of remote microgrids. Pike Research forecasts, "the primary driver for remote microgrids over the next six years will be the integration of solar photovoltaics, a technology that will help reduce diesel fuel consumption…the global remote microgrid market will expand from 349 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity in 2011 to over 1.1 gigawatts (GW) by 2017, an amount that equals or perhaps even surpasses all other microgrid segments combined, whether in the planning stages or already deployed. That growth in capacity will translate into total projected revenue for the remote microgrid sector, under Pike Research’s average forecast scenario, of more than $10.2 billion by 2017. A more conservative base scenario – which may hold if the global economy continues to stumble – would still result in a healthy $4.5 billion market in 2017."

What distinguish a true remote ICT microgrid from remote piece of ICT gear like a base station? A microgrid generally has a larger energy source feeding multiple piece of gear. Imagine interconnected solar and diesel generation powering not only that base station but also a community charging station for phones and tablets and a school's wireless router.