More than 800 million people worldwide lack basic access to electricity, while billions more have only unreliable or unaffordable energy. Meanwhile, despite the apparent ubiquity of smartphones, the digital divide persists, with more than two billion globally lacking internet access. A lack of reliable and affordable power naturally makes it difficult to address digital access — and also limits financial inclusion, since financial services are increasingly being digitized and recent progress has been led by innovations like mobile money.
In addressing the challenges of energy poverty, digital exclusion and financial marginalization, investments are often narrowly aimed at tackling only one of those problems at a time. Yet the evidence from the field is clear: these are not isolated problems but symptoms of a deeper issue in how infrastructure is designed, financed and measured. They are the outcome of what I call the “enabling infrastructure trilemma.”
The trilemma arises because while energy systems, digital connectivity and financial rails are mutually dependent, they are often viewed as discrete sectors by investors and policymakers. In practice, this separation has produced fragmented infrastructure investments, fragile economics and slow progress on inclusive development. Investing in any one without the others leads to brittle results, poor utilization of capital and slowing progress toward both economic inclusion and growth as well as climate goals.
Understanding development and investment through the lens of this trilemma has profound implications for institutional climate investors. Climate capital is increasingly abundant, yet the gap between financial commitments and actual outcomes remains wide. Investments focused solely on renewable generation, absent the digital and financial infrastructure that underpins sustainable demand and revenue, often struggle to deliver durable impact, and as a result, isolated projects have higher failure rates.
Integrated approaches support diversified income streams and greater cash-flow stability while connecting decarbonization with economic growth. For climate finance to have real-world impact at scale, it must invest not in isolated solutions but in integrated systems that unlock energy access, digital inclusion and financial depth simultaneously.
Energy poverty an urgent challenge
In sub-Saharan Africa, only about half the population has electricity access, compared with near universal access in most high-income nations. But progress on expanding access has stalled, and even where progress in building electricity systems has been made, population growth is erasing gains in many places. The International Energy Agency estimates that electrification has barely kept pace with population growth, leaving close to 600 million people across the continent — mostly in sub-Saharan countries — without access.
Energy poverty, moreover, is not just about the binary indicator of access or not — it also encompasses reliability, affordability and the broader capability of energy systems to enable productive use. Even where electric service exists, inconsistent service and high costs impose severe restraints and limit the value of a connection. Unreliable power constrains educational outcomes, health care services, business productivity and access to digital services. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, health clinics and midwives vie to time childbirths during the day to avoid the hazard of delivery by flammable kerosene lamps.
These dynamics are deeply consequential for climate strategy and sustainable development. Without reliable, affordable power infrastructure, clean energy goals will remain out of reach in regions where development needs are greatest.
Coordinated rollouts multiply benefits
Electricity access alone is insufficient if it does not enable connectivity and digital services. Mobile networks, data services and edge computing infrastructure all depend not only on reliable power but also robust financial systems to scale.
Where electricity is unreliable, the cost of maintaining digital networks rises, service quality suffers and adoption slows. Digital financial services such as mobile money — tools that have delivered big economic gains in the developing world in recent years — are disproportionately concentrated in areas with stable connectivity and access to power. A recent academic analysis of financial and digital inclusion in West and Central Africa highlights that outcomes in payments and digital financial services are strongly correlated with education, income and rural access patterns.
Likewise, pay-as-you-go solar models that have catalyzed energy access adoption in parts of Africa depend on mobile payments infrastructure to collect small, frequent payments. The financing model for home-based solar systems popularized by companies like PEG Africa leverages mobile money to make energy affordable and to build digital financial histories for customers previously outside formal credit systems.
‘Energy, digital and financial systems fail when built in silos.’
Financial inclusion is not a downstream luxury but a foundational enabler of energy and digital adoption. The implication is not simply to invest in these systems simultaneously, but to build them concurrently and in coordination. When energy, digital and financial infrastructure are designed to work together, each becomes more effective. Utilization rises, revenues stabilize, and development benefits extend beyond any single asset class. Coordinated execution turns infrastructure into a platform for growth rather than a collection of disconnected projects.
As Erik Hersmann, the CEO of off-grid energy startup Gridless, has put it: “People don’t care about energy, they care about what electricity can do for them. People don’t care about WiFi, they care about what they can use it for to improve their lives. People don’t care about Bitcoin/crypto, they care about what it lets them do.”
Solving the trilemma
Hersmann’s comment underscores a critical truth: infrastructure value is derived from what it can do to enable activity and opportunity, not from the infrastructure itself. Taking this perspective reframes climate investment from a supply-side paradigm to a systems-enabler paradigm. The aim should not be just installing assets, but unlocking downstream economic and social value.
Viewing the challenges through this lens can also explain why progress on energy access improvements has stalled and why digital and financial services have failed to reach their potential in many underserved regions. Climate finance that focuses solely on renewable capacity or emissions reductions without addressing the enabling systems that make those emissions reductions meaningful runs the risk of producing stranded assets and limited social impact.
This is not merely a technical challenge of building capacity. Africa holds some of the highest potential for renewable energy on the planet. Solar resources in the Sahel exceed 2,000 kilowatt-hours per square meter annually. Off-peak wind potential in East Africa could support double-digit percentages of current demand. Hydro resources along major river systems are among the largest on the planet. But resource abundance alone has not translated into reliable, affordable power for households and businesses. The reason is not lack of energy per se, but missing enabling systems that overcome physical, economic and social challenges for energy infrastructure development.
Modular computing, flexible demand
Historically, computing infrastructure was centralized in large data centers with rigid power requirements. That model is now changing. In parallel with the exploding demand for AI, compute infrastructure is becoming modular, portable and responsive to power availability, allowing workloads to be deployed closer to communities and closer to renewable generation sources.
Modular computing such as Bitcoin mining can act as a programmable demand anchor for distributed energy systems. By absorbing excess power generation and improving utilization rates, modular computing strengthens the economics of microgrids and other renewable deployments. This improves capacity factor, reduces average cost per unit of energy delivered and increases financial predictability as a buyer of first and last resort.
This effect is especially visible when flexible compute workloads are colocated with renewable energy projects.
Consider Gridless, which operates modular compute infrastructure co-located with renewable energy projects in East Africa. By functioning as a flexible buyer of last resort — buying excess electricity not used by households — Gridless enhances the revenue profile of renewable assets and improves the viability of clean energy investments.
In Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, leaders faced a funding crisis after tourism revenue collapsed due to conflict and pandemic effects. Existing hydroelectric capacity was underutilized. In response, park managers embraced a hydro-powered Bitcoin mining operation that monetizes renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted. The revenue generated from mining now approximates the park’s former tourism income and funds conservation, community programs and staff operations. This approach demonstrates how surplus renewable energy can be converted into stable financial resources in contexts where traditional revenue streams have failed.
Filling the capital gap
Addressing energy poverty in Africa requires investment on a scale that far exceeds current flows. The International Energy Agency estimates that less than $2.5 billion was committed to new electricity access connections in sub-Saharan Africa in 2023 — but that achieving universal access by 2035 would require around $150 billion in total investment. Beyond access, broader estimates suggest that $35 billion to $50 billion per year in energy finance is needed to support affordable, clean energy for all Africans.
These figures highlight a stark mismatch between need and current capital deployment. They also underscore that climate investors seeking scalable impact must look beyond project-by-project deals and toward systems with diversified revenue streams and sustainable economics.
‘Institutional investors require predictable, long-term cash flows and risk profiles compatible with large balance sheets.’
For institutional climate investors, the implications are stark and actionable. Capital allocated to isolated renewable generation infrastructure without accompanying digital and payment infrastructure is unlikely to achieve durable climate or development impact.
Institutional investors require predictable, long-term cash flows and risk profiles compatible with large balance sheets. Integrated systems with modular compute and digital payment rails can deliver exactly that. By stacking revenues from energy sales, compute services and digital transactions, these systems diversify income streams and reduce dependence on concessional support.
Digitally native infrastructure is also data-rich, which improves transparency and reduces risk. Continuous, auditable transaction data supports better underwriting, performance monitoring and structured finance instruments.
From a climate strategy perspective, integrated systems align emissions reductions with economic development. They reduce reliance on diesel generation and increase renewable utilization. They also expand access to economic opportunity for populations that have historically been excluded from modern energy, financial and digital systems.
Scaling the approach
The critical challenge is scaling beyond bespoke pilot projects. Scale requires standardization, interoperable systems and new financing structures that recognize the interdependence of energy, digital and financial infrastructure.
Investors should prioritize a willingness to invest in novel approaches and capital stack structures, contractual structures that enable revenue stacking and predictable cash flows, payment platforms and digital identity systems that integrate seamlessly with service delivery and policy frameworks that support cross-sector coordination and risk mitigation, especially to reduce needless roadblocks. Once these elements are in place, energy sites can be aggregated into portfolios attractive to institutional capital. Risk can be diversified across geographies and revenue sources.
If we can succeed in adopting this approach, then climate outcomes will become measurable not only in avoided emissions but in improved socio-economic indicators. Traditional climate measurement tends to focus narrowly on emissions per megawatt or avoided carbon. This is insufficient in contexts where infrastructure gaps represent both a climate challenge and a development barrier.
‘Integrated systems align emissions reductions with economic development.’
A systems lens can evaluate how energy access improves education and economic participation; how digital connectivity enables productivity and inclusion; and how financial rails anchor long-term economic growth. This approach aligns climate outcomes with human development outcomes, which is precisely the combination that unlocks durable investment opportunities and sustainable impact.
Understanding development investment through the framework of the “enabling infrastructure trilemma” explains why so many well-intentioned climate and development investments underperform. Energy, digital and financial systems fail when built in silos.
Modular computing is not a silver bullet, but it is a powerful systemic lever that can knit these systems together. For institutional climate investors, the opportunity is to allocate capital not just to individual assets, but to enabling systems that compound economic, social and climate value.
Solving energy poverty, digital exclusion and financial marginalization requires a paradigm shift in how we conceptualize and finance infrastructure. It is not about sequencing interventions, but about building infrastructure that scales, that generates revenue across multiple dimensions, and that creates pathways out of poverty and toward resilient, decarbonized economies.
Breaking the trilemma is not ideological. It is possible through overcoming physical, economic and social challenges. And increasingly, it is investable.
