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Charging a mobile phone in rural Africa is insanely expensive

but it doesn't have to be

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


Think about the last time you plugged in your phone to charge it up. Did you first pause to think about how much it would cost you?

If you're like me, you plug in your phone before you go to bed so that it's charged up and ready to go in the morning. Or you top it off throughout the day. And if you're like me, you give little thought to how much it actually costs to charge up your phone. That's because charging mobile phones and tablets doesn't cost all that much in the grand scheme of things - at least for those of us "on the grid". A typical electricity rate in the US or UK is 12 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

But what about those without the convenience of centrally-produced electricity and a network of transmission lines and distribution stations and household wiring? How does one charge a mobile phone. And more importantly, how much does it cost?


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As I found out during research for my article about pay-as-you-go solar energy, those who live off the grid pay an outrageous amount for their energy.

Let's do a quick comparison. For convenience, I'm going to use my iPhone 5. According to the folks at iFixIt, it uses a 5.45 watt-hour (Wh) battery. That is about the same as running a 5-watt CFL for a little over an hour. If we assume that I charge my phone every day (365 times a year) my total bill comes out to just 25 cents. What a steal! Nothing costs a quarter anymore. Except, apparently, charging my iPhone for an entire year.

Now, let's switch gears to rural Africa. If I take my iPhone 5 to a rural village in Kenya without grid access to electricity I can't plug it into the wall because there won't be a wall outlet. For nearly 5-in-6 people living in rural sub-Saharan Africa this is the norm. Instead, I would have to walk to a local shop and find a kiosk to charge my phone, where I might pay around 25 cents every time I need a top up - or $91 a year. That's 383 times more expensive than in the US!

I like the way Simon Bransfield-Garth puts it: "the poorest people in the world are not just paying a bit more for their energy, they’re paying a disproportionate amount."

As I write in my article, clever business models coupled with technology can bring electricity to rural populations at competitive rates. And with roughly 253 million mobile phone subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa, there appears to be a market ripe for disruption.

David Wogan is an engineer and policy researcher who writes about energy, technology, and policy.

David's academic and professional background includes a unique blend of technology and policy in the field of energy systems. Most recently, David worked at Austin Energy, a Texas municipal utility, implementing a Department of Energy stimulus grant related to energy efficiency. Previously, David was a member of the Energy & Climate Change team at the White House Council on Environmental Quality for the Obama Administration.

David holds two Master's degrees from The University of Texas at Austin in Mechanical Engineering and Public Affairs. While at UT, David was a researcher in the Webber Energy Group, where his research focused on advanced biofuel production to offset petroleum use in the transportation sector. David holds a Bachelor's of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin, where he researched nuclear non-proliferation measurement technology.

David is a 2013 Aspen Institute Journalism Scholar, joining a select group of journalists from Slate, ABC News, and The New York Times.

David lives in Austin, Texas. Follow along on Twitter or email him at david.wogan@me.com.

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