By: Victor Obetta

The clean energy transition is often presented as a story of new technology, major investments and ambitious climate targets. Across the United States, billions of dollars are being committed to solar power, battery storage, electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies, with federal and state programmes creating new opportunities for communities to participate in the transition.

Yet, having access to technology and funding does not always mean a project will get off the ground. In many small and mid-sized communities, the challenge lies in navigating the technical, financial and regulatory requirements that stand between an energy project being proposed and actually being built.

That is the space where Victor Obetta, a Nigerian clean energy professional based in Boston, Massachusetts, has built much of his career. With a background in project development management, he has worked with municipalities and public agencies to turn clean energy ambitions into projects that can be financed, approved and implemented.

During an interview with our reporter, Obetta referred to the problem as the “execution gap”, which he said is the space between a community’s need for clean energy and its practical ability to implement it. He explained that a municipality may have suitable public buildings for solar installations, plans to electrify its vehicle fleet or a need for battery storage at critical facilities, while also having access to federal, state or utility funding. What it may not have is a member of staff with the expertise and time to navigate the multiple processes required to turn those opportunities into functioning infrastructure.

A project can require interconnection engineering, public procurement procedures, financial modelling, grant applications and coordination among utilities, engineers, contractors, finance officers and elected officials. The process can stretch over 18 to 36 months, making it particularly difficult for smaller local governments with limited staff and no dedicated energy specialists.

“When a professional with the right combination of skills engages and does that work, projects happen,” Obetta said, describing the difference that additional capacity can make. “Rooftops get covered. Storage systems get installed. Fleets get electrified. The savings flow to municipal budgets that desperately need them.”

The consequences of that gap extend beyond the United States. Nigeria’s energy challenges are different in scale and structure, but the underlying question of how to turn energy opportunities, investments and plans into projects that communities can actually use remains relevant. A technology may be available and a funding opportunity may exist, but without the technical and administrative capacity to develop and execute a project, the potential benefit can remain unrealised.

Obetta said his approach is heavily informed by his background in business analytics. He holds a Master of Science in Business Analytics from Bentley University, where he developed expertise in data-driven decision-making, statistical modelling and financial analysis.

He said those skills have proved particularly valuable in clean energy development because decisions about infrastructure require more than broad projections or good intentions.

Before a municipality commits to a solar installation or battery storage system, it needs to understand its existing electricity consumption, including how demand changes throughout the day and across different seasons. It also needs financial models capable of comparing financing options over the life of a project, an assessment of the potential emissions reductions and a strategy for combining grants, incentives and other funding sources to bring down the overall cost.

“Without analytical rigor, these questions are answered with rough estimates and good intentions,” Obetta said. “With analytical rigor, they are answered with models that can be tested, stress-tested, and defended to elected officials, bond rating agencies, and community stakeholders.”

One project he worked on involved a school district in a mid-sized Northeastern US city that had considered solar power for several years but had never progressed beyond discussions. The district operated ageing buildings with significant solar potential while paying commercial electricity rates, but lacked the internal capacity to undertake a detailed feasibility assessment.

Obetta developed a financial model examining the net present value of installing solar across the district’s portfolio under three financing scenarios. He also mapped the district’s electricity demand against projected solar production and identified federal direct pay provisions and state grant programmes that could cover approximately 40% of the project cost. Within less than a year, the project had moved from theoretical discussion to active procurement.

“That is what data-driven project development looks like in practice,” he said. “It is not the work that generates press releases about breakthrough technology. It is the work that turns clean energy policy into clean energy infrastructure.”

The need for this kind of capacity becomes even more significant when energy costs are considered alongside income. Obetta cited research showing that low-income households in the US spend, on average, three times more of their income on energy bills than non-low-income households, while Black and Hispanic households within that group face even higher energy burden rates. Many underserved communities also contend with inefficient buildings and ageing infrastructure, making access to modern energy solutions potentially valuable both environmentally and financially.

A similar concern can be considered in the Nigerian context, where energy reliability and affordability remain important issues for households, businesses and public institutions. The circumstances are not identical to those facing American municipalities, but the broader lesson is applicable: the communities with the greatest need can still struggle to benefit from new energy opportunities when the capacity to identify, develop and execute projects is limited.

That is one reason Obetta has begun exploring how artificial intelligence could reduce the amount of time and money required to develop clean energy projects. Through Clean Energetic AI, a platform he founded, he is developing AI-powered tools for clean energy project development and procurement, with the aim of automating parts of the analytical and documentation process while leaving strategic decisions and technical judgement to professionals.

Funding discovery is one area where he sees immediate potential. Municipalities seeking support for solar, battery storage or electrification projects may need to search through federal programmes, state incentives, utility schemes and competitive grants, each with different eligibility requirements, application periods and documentation. He explained that an AI system capable of continuously monitoring those programmes and screening them against the profile of a particular municipality could reduce what is currently a lengthy research process to a much more targeted search.

The same principle can be applied to proposal development. Grant applications often require a combination of energy consumption data, emissions calculations, financial projections and assessments of community benefits. Much of the preparatory work follows predictable patterns and can therefore be supported by AI, allowing professionals to devote more time to strategic positioning, technical review and the decisions that ultimately determine whether a proposal succeeds.

According to him, the potential significance of that approach extends beyond American cities. Where municipalities or community organisations have limited technical personnel, tools that make funding opportunities easier to identify and complex project information easier to process could help reduce some of the capacity constraints that prevent viable energy projects from progressing.

In Nigeria, where energy needs can differ considerably between communities, combining data with local knowledge could also support more targeted decisions about where and how clean energy investments are deployed.
Obetta, however, does not present AI as a substitute for human expertise. Rather, he sees it as a way of making that expertise more accessible by reducing the cost and time associated with routine work.

He said a large city with a sustainability department and dedicated energy staff may already have the resources to undertake extensive project development, while a smaller municipality with only a part-time administrator may face the same energy needs without having the personnel or budget to obtain comparable support.

Reducing that disparity could have important implications for how the clean energy transition is distributed. If sophisticated analytical and funding tools become cheaper and easier to access, smaller communities may have a better chance of competing for programmes that would otherwise be dominated by larger and better-resourced public agencies.

The issue also has implications for utilities, whose role is changing as more distributed energy resources are connected to electricity networks. Municipal solar installations, battery storage and electrification can affect distribution planning, demand forecasting and rate structures. Obetta argues that utilities will increasingly need to work proactively with municipalities as these projects develop, rather than treating interconnection and incentive programmes simply as regulatory obligations.

For him, the next phase of the clean energy transition will depend less on whether the technology exists and more on whether communities have the capacity to use it.
“The clean energy transition does not primarily need more technology breakthroughs,” he said, noting that solar photovoltaics, battery storage, heat pumps and electric vehicle charging infrastructure are already sufficiently mature to support deployment at scale in many markets.

“What the transition needs most is execution capacity: the professional infrastructure to turn policy and capital into built projects, in every community that needs them, not just the ones with the most sophisticated municipal governments.”

That argument has relevance on both sides of the Atlantic. The US has invested heavily in creating financial incentives for clean energy deployment, while Nigeria continues to confront significant challenges around electricity access, reliability and infrastructure. In both settings, however, the distance between an available opportunity and a functioning project can be substantial.

He noted that closing that distance requires people who can understand technical requirements, build credible financial models, identify appropriate funding and navigate regulatory processes. “It also requires systems capable of making information easier to find and reducing the administrative burden that can overwhelm organisations with limited capacity,” Obetta said.