BE33 pilot experiences electrical failure while holding short but is able to receive takeoff clearance from Tower via cell phone. The flight to home base is about one hour at night.

Narrative

I was at the FBO at SBA and I made the appropriate radio calls to taxi to the active runway which was 15R. After crossing Runway 15L as I was holding short of 15R I lost electrical power. I was given light gun signals to return to starting point from SBA Tower. Then I called the Tower via cellular phone to conserve electrical power. They instructed me via telephone taxi and clearance to take off from 15R; at this point I handed the telephone to the passenger to take over the instructions from Tower while I did the take off. We were airborne with no issues but it seems that we were losing more electrical power. I decided to take into account the airspace enroute. I climbed to 9;500 with the Class B in mind; I did not enter Class B but might have been within the Mode-C veil. I kept in mind the approach corridor of the class B and navigated clear from that. Due to night conditions I did not want to venture tOo far offshore where there were no airports available to land in case I had an additional issue(s). I flew the aircraft from SBA to where repairs could be made to the aircraft.