In places around the world where the grid hasn’t been extended, they’re still figuring out ways to power phones, lights, and other gadgets requiring an electric charge. We can learn a thing or two.
6.8 billion mobile phone subscribers number almost as high as the number of people on the planet Tweet This Quote
Globally, the 6.8 billion mobile phone subscribers number almost as high as the number of people on the planet, but according to Green Power For Mobile by The GSMA Development Fund, nearly 500 million people worldwide do not have the means of charging a mobile phone at home. These statistics demonstrate how traditional infrastructure models have not kept up with the technology of the future. Providing a place for the 500 million under-electrified to charge their phones is an enormous wealth-generating opportunity for ambitious entrepreneurs. It will also produce new innovations in electricity infrastructure.
Entrepreneurs are finding ways to deploy electricity infrastructure that works for the under-electrified Tweet This Quote
Some entrepreneurs are already capitalizing on this opportunity. Juabar is leasing wheeled, solar-powered phone-charging kiosks across Tanzania. While the engineering design is creative, the most important aspect of Juabar’s business model is the financing. Many people in the developing world pay far more to use diesel or other fossil fuel generators than they would spend over the lifetime of a solar system. However, they do not have enough savings to pay for the upfront investment in a solar system. Through financed products like Juabar’s mobile kiosk, entrepreneurs are finding ways to deploy electricity infrastructure that works for the under-electrified.
To service the 500 million cell phone users without access to electricity, entrepreneurs are shunning the large, centralized models of the past and embracing small, distributed technology.
Can we find solutions to charge mobile phones with no grid? Tweet This Quote
In the developed world, when we think about charging a mobile phone, most of us picture a plug-in. Yet, as we move from landlines to mobile phones, the cost of extending the grid to all of the citizens in emerging markets will never be cost effective. Mobiles phones connect rural people in a way landlines never could; the same story is playing out as new energy sources like solar are triumphing over the traditional grid.
Innovating upon the traditional grid model is challenging for developed countries because it is so easy to settle for the existing status quo. The grid works well enough and so there is little incentive to experiment with something better. This is not the case in many developing countries. Distributed micro-grids powered by renewables like wind and solar are the only way for many rural villages to receive cheap power.
Large solar companies from SunEdison to Solar City have already created micro-grid solutions for these markets, but the 1.3 billion people across the world without access to electricity is a market too big for just a few companies to capture.
Small-scale solutions like solar phones, mobile charging kiosks, and village micro-grids are real and viable—in fact, they are cheaper than both the grid and the diesel power that feeds it.
Can we provide electricity to a new home subdivision without extending the existing grid? Tweet This Quote
In the developed world, we like to think big. But we might be better off thinking small and asking these questions: Can we find cost-effective solutions to charge mobile phones with no grid? Can we provide electricity to a new home subdivision without extending the existing grid? Can we tap electricity stored in electric vehicles and stationary battery banks to help light a city? The answer to every one of these questions is “yes.”
Living laboratories like Africa and Southeast Asia are developing new innovations in distributed and renewable electrical infrastructure. The developed world should start paying attention.