Pumpkins, peanuts or coconuts are not just for eating.

It turns out you might also use them to power a mobile phone network. This microplant, shown at 3GSM, but already in action in Nigeria and Tanzania, processes biodiesel from oils squeezed from crops. This unit (pictured) produces 2,000 litres per day, enough to fuel up to 40 cellular base stations.

Ericsson has developed it because in remote areas in emerging economies there is no electricity grid, and trucking fossil diesel fuel to the base station power generator can be a long, hazardous and costly affair — in some cases it even requires a helicopter trip and guards to protect the fuel.

Motorola is also on the road to renewable energy with prototype base stations running on a combination of wind and solar-power. Motorola says it’s cheaper than fossil fuels, and all the associated costs. Sounds like a good idea, no? Such a good idea, in fact, that local farmers have started stealing the solar panels which are worth several thousand dollars each (you need four to run a base station). The plan is to put the solar panels on high poles and fence the whole unit off with high voltage fences — powered by the solar panel, indeed…

Click here to watch video (it’s a hefty 5 megabytes and may require Quicktime):