Globally, there are 5.3 billion mobile phone subscribers–but according to Green Power For Mobile by The GSMA Development Fund, nearly 500 million people worldwide do not have a means of charging a mobile phone at home. while these statistics are staggering, they are an example of how the traditional infrastructure of the past has not kept up with the technology of the future. Upgrading the energy infrastructure to meet these new needs is one of the greatest wealth-generating opportunities of our lifetime.
When looking at the simple yet growing problem of mobile phone and electronics lacking a place to plug in, we see that there are entrepreneurs trying to find solutions and new business opportunities. For example, in just the past few years, we have seen the evolution of new solar-powered cell phones for impoverished places in Central America, the Caribbean, and the South Pacific–and there is no grid or plug involved. and last year, Vodafone introduced a solar-powered mobile handset for India, where a third of the population does not have access to the power grid.
To service the 500 million cell phone users with no access to electricity, we are finding answers on a distributed scale.
Still, when we think about charging a mobile phone, BlackBerry, iPhone, or anything else in the developed world (especially the U.S.), do most of us picture anything but a plug? The answer is obviously “no.” yet as in the move from landlines to mobile phones, the cost of extending the grid to all of the citizens of emerging markets will never be cost effective. So extending the traditional “landline” infrastructure has to be rethought as consumers continue to discover the electricity-consuming tools of the 21st century.
Most people will go home tonight and charge their cell phone. Many will charge more than one mobile phone, a computer, and an iPad (or some other kind of tablet). This gadget lust has contributed to our insatiable hunger for power sources. but, the “haves,” in this case, could learn from the “have-nots.” To service the 500 million cell phone users with no access to electricity, we are finding answers on a distributed scale.
Small-scale solutions like solar phones, solar chargers, wind-up chargers, base station charging, and village charging stations are all real and viable–in fact, they are cheaper than both the grid and the diesel power that feeds it.
In the developed world, we like to think big. but we might be better off to think small and ask these questions: Can we find solutions to charge one phone 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 server battery backup units to help light a city? The answer to every one of these questions is “yes.”
Why? because, the technology is here. we just need a new business model to unleash the answers we already have.