Welcome back to The Curious Learners. In this episode, my AI co-hosts look at how distributed energy is reshaping electricity access across Africa, using insights from my latest post on The Curious Learners (see here).

Distributed energy is a necessity in Africa, not a choice. It provides access to hundreds of millions of people who still lack electricity. That makes it different from developed markets, where distributed power is often a nice to have. It is used for saving costs or earning revenue, but not as the primary means of access.

Despite being the sunniest continent, Africa accounts for only a fraction of global solar generation. But that headline misses the real story. Solar installations are rising fast, not just on grids but also on rooftops, mini-grids, and standalone systems. In some markets, solar already costs less than diesel or even the main grid.

We will unpack the data, explore what is driving the shift, and look at why distributed energy is becoming the foundation of electricity access in much of the continent rather than just a secondary layer.

🎧 New Podcast Episode: Infrastructure at the Heart — Why the Energy Transition Is a Delivery and Business Model Challenge

We often hear that clean technologies like solar, wind, and batteries are the key to decarbonisation. But the real challenge isn’t about technological breakthroughs. It’s about delivery, getting projects permitted, financed, built, and connected to systems that weren’t designed for this kind of transformation.

In this episode of The Curious Learners, I explore why infrastructure, not innovation, is the critical bottleneck in the energy transition. Narrated by my AI co-hosts, the episode unpacks:

• Why execution risk is now the dominant risk for investors
• How policy, permitting, and market design are stalling progress
• Why business model innovation matters more than hardware breakthroughs
• What’s missing in how we evaluate and scale climate-tech infrastructure

Backed by insights from the World Economic Forum, McKinsey, Allianz Capital Partners, and CDPQ, this is a systems-level look at where the real work lies in the net-zero journey.

🎙️ Listen in and share your thoughts — is it tech that’s holding us back, or something deeper?

#EnergyTransition #ClimateTech #Infrastructure #CleanEnergy #NetZero #PrivateEquity #TheCuriousLearners

In this episode of The Curious Learners, we take a step back from the noise of disruption and zoom in on something more subtle - but just as transformative: the quiet reinvention of the real economy.

Across manufacturing floors, supply chains, family businesses, and financial institutions, a less glamorous but more enduring form of innovation is underway. It’s not about tearing industries down; it’s about modernizing them from within.

We explore how small and mid-sized - often overlooked in the venture or policy spotlight - are integrating AI, reshoring supply chains, transitioning to low-carbon operations, and navigating generational change. These aren’t the stories that usually make headlines, but they are the backbone of economic resilience and industrial transformation.

This episode builds on my latest essay, Beyond Disruption: that the next decade of meaningful progress will be driven not just by startups, but by the incumbents, successors, and operators who choose to build better systems from the inside out.

If you're interested in patient capital, modern manufacturing, climate transition, or the power of steady execution - this one's for you.