Hey, sub-Saharan Africa, feeling energy poor? Take a mobile phone and call me in the morning.

Suddenly everyone’s looking at the story of mobile phones in Africa as the silver bullet to just about anything.

Is someone selling you counterfeit malaria pills? Let a mobile phone check on that for you. (1)

Too poor to have a bank account? Try mobile banking.(2)

Are you a herder in Kenya or Tanzania and have a sick goat? Track it on a mobile phone. (3)

Someone trying to pull a real estate scam on you in Lagos? Let Google’s Android handle that for you.(4)

With a quarter of the sub-Saharan Africa population now connected to a mobile phone network, analysts at the World Bank are wondering if lessons from the mobile phone model just might be able to help address rural poverty in Africa. The idea, presented in a World Bank policy research paper and first reported by IAP Update, is to replicate the business model of mobile phone operators in Africa to introduce decentralized access to electricity from renewable sources, such as wind and solar.

This could turn out to be a nifty solution that won’t require the massive capital and technological investments traditionally associated with the expansion of national grids. This solution would be more practical in rural where the cost of electrification is highest.  What’s more, because we’re talking about renewable energy sources, these “decentralized renewable-energy technologies” could be paid for by the carbon finance market.