Its the height of imperialist arrogance to say that new economies don’t need energy grids, or that they should be denied things like air conditioning, cooking, electricity, internet… that imperial core citizens already enjoy, or that attempting to get these things is “wasteful”.

No one needs a grid and no one is denied anything. Waste means objective waste not some opinion of waste. It means there is a better way to accomplish the same, not to do without.

On location solar and wind power is all that is necessary for any needs. It is also cheaper than building a big honking grid. Microgrid transmission can be used to balance local demand spikes in commercial and industrial areas.

Insulated buildings require less energy to maintain temperature, etc.

It is the height of arrogance to say that people need to waste energy, to say that everyone deserves an opportunity to be a glutton, and it’s only fair that since you got to waste then I get to waste too. That’s the same thinking that produces women CEOs who are just as evil as the men before them then calls it gender equality.

Edit: you are right about one thing though, expertise is being denied by the imperial core. Like the expertise to know that grids are wasteful, and there is a better way. Because they’d like to sell you a grid instead. Puerto Rico is a perfect example of this.