Africa Doesn’t Just Need More Megawatts. It Needs Smarter Power.

Africa’s industrial ambitions will require more electricity. But Haytham Abdo argues that simply adding megawatts is no longer enough.

Hosted by Energy News Network (ENN) in partnership with The Electricity Hub, Let’s Talk Energy continues its series recorded live at the Africa Energy Forum 2026 in Cape Town with Haytham Abdo, Director, Business Development at Desert Technologies.

The conversation explores how AI and data could turn renewable energy projects into intelligent infrastructure for agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare and other productive sectors. Abdo points to Desert Technologies’ use of AI for predictive maintenance, energy management and agriculture, where its technology has helped increase crop yields by more than 25%.

But the bigger argument is about finance. If bankability depends on confidence, could better operational data, predictive cash flows and smarter energy management make distributed energy infrastructure easier to finance at scale?

For Africa, the next energy race may not be about who builds the most power. It may be about who builds the smartest.