Fish oil and waste vegetable oil for starters, Jatropha for the main course—not an enticing menu you might rightly feel, but operators of mobile base stations seem to have a different opinion. Four mobile stations, powered by the aforementioned menu, have extended Idea Cellular’s commercial mobile network in rural India.

All four locations, which are in Maharashtra, are greenfield sites that have so far not had any access to a mobile network. These sites are also located in areas with unreliable power supply, making them ideal candidates for the fuel concoction. The project is based on the findings of a feasibility study of different sources of oil for biodiesel production.