"The Consultant": A diegetic comic arts approach to energy infrastructure by PCGS Masters Student Tyler Christian Daniels
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THE CONSULTANT
"The Consultant" follows a World Bank energy consultant who flies into Lagos with a briefcase full of fossil fuel proposals and the assumption that the Global South needs what the Global North has always sold it. A local engineer named Adaeze shows him what he never bothered to look for: rooftop solar, biogas digesters, and community-built infrastructure already running for years. The story connects to Module 3's core argument that viable renewable solutions exist and work throughout the solar north, but get ignored because acknowledging them would threaten the power structures built on fossil fuel dependency. The solution was never his to deliver. It was already there.
PAGE 1
Panel 1 The World Bank's Office of Energy Development. Washington D.C. 7:42 AM.
A corner office. Charts on the wall. A man in a sharp suit — MARCUS, 40s, confident, the kind of guy who has never doubted himself — snaps his briefcase shut. Inside: loan proposals. Coal. Natural gas. The usual.
MARCUS (thought bubble): Another day. Another developing market. Another opportunity.
Panel 2 His assistant hands him a folder. The tab reads: "REGION 7 — SOLAR NORTH INITIATIVE."
ASSISTANT: Your briefing packet, Mr. Cole. Local officials are... resistant to the gas pipeline proposal.
MARCUS: They always are. Until they see the numbers.
He tosses the folder on his desk without opening it.
Panel 3 Marcus on a phone call, leaning back in his chair, feet on the desk.
MARCUS: Tell the Lagos team we're moving forward with the coal plant proposal. These countries need reliable energy, not experiments.
Six hours later. Somewhere over the Atlantic.
Lagos, Nigeria. Population: 15 million. Annual sunshine: 2,600 hours. Fossil fuel dependency: entirely unnecessary.
MARCUS (thought bubble): Hot. Very hot.
PAGE 2
Panel 1 Marcus in the back of a cab, flipping through his proposals. Outside the window, the city blurs past. He doesn't look up.
MARCUS: Take me straight to the Ministry of Energy.
CAB DRIVER: Of course. You notice the panels?
MARCUS: Hm?
CAB DRIVER: The solar panels. On every roof. My cousin installed half of them.
Marcus glances out the window for one second, then goes back to his papers.
MARCUS: Mm. Cute.
Panel 2 Ministry of Energy. A hallway. Marcus strides in purposefully. A woman in an engineering uniform — ADAEZE, 30s, sharp eyes, not impressed — falls into step beside him without being invited.
ADAEZE: Mr. Cole? I'm Adaeze. Local infrastructure engineer. I'll be shadowing your visit.
MARCUS: That won't be necessary, I —
ADAEZE: It was not a question.
MARCUS: Gentlemen. What your region needs is reliable baseload power. Gas is clean, scalable, and shovel-ready. We can have the infrastructure —
OFFICIAL #1: We have infrastructure.
MARCUS: With respect, sir, your grid is —
OFFICIAL #2: Our grid is fine. The question is why you keep offering us the same solution we keep saying no to.
Silence.
PAGE 3
Panel 1 Outside the Ministry. Marcus loosens his tie. Adaeze hands him a bottle of water.
MARCUS: They're being shortsighted. Gas is a bridge fuel. It's the logical —
ADAEZE: Come with me.
MARCUS: I have calls to —
ADAEZE: They will wait.
Panel 2 A market street. Loud, colorful, alive. Marcus looks overwhelmed. Adaeze walks like she owns the place.
MARCUS: Where are we going?
ADAEZE: Nowhere special. Just everywhere you weren't planning to look.
ADAEZE: Rooftop photovoltaic. Community installed. Most of these families have had uninterrupted power for three years.
MARCUS: That can't be enough to —
ADAEZE: It is more than enough. And it cost them about five hundred dollars per household.
Marcus opens his mouth. Closes it.
PAGE 4
Panel 1 A narrower alley. Quieter. An older woman stirs a pot over a small blue flame. A system of pipes runs from a tank in the corner.
ADAEZE: Biogas digester. Food waste, organic matter. She hasn't paid a cooking fuel bill in two years.
MARCUS: You're serious.
ADAEZE: I am always serious, Mr. Cole.
Panel 2 Marcus crouches down, studying the setup. For the first time, he sets his briefcase on the ground.
MARCUS: How many households use this?
ADAEZE: In this block? Eleven. In this district? Thousands. In Nepal, entire villages that do not appear on your maps have been running on biogas and micro-hydro for decades.
MARCUS: Nobody told me —
ADAEZE: Nobody asked.
The north told you this wasn't feasible. They told you that because feasibility depends on who you ask.
PAGE 5
Panel 1 Evening. Marcus and Adaeze sit on a low wall outside. His briefcase is on the ground beside him, slightly open. The proposals are starting to slip out.
MARCUS: I've been doing this job for fifteen years.
ADAEZE: I know.
MARCUS: We've financed energy infrastructure in forty-two countries.
ADAEZE: I know that too.
MARCUS: Did any of it look like this?
Adaeze doesn't answer. She doesn't need to.
Panel 2 Marcus picks up one of the loan proposals from his briefcase. Stares at it.
MARCUS: The assumptions in these models. They were all built on data from northern markets.
ADAEZE: Yes.
MARCUS: Cloudy skies. Dense high-rises. Energy patterns that have nothing to do with this city.
ADAEZE: Or this continent. Or most of the planet, actually.
Fifteen years. Forty-two countries. And I never once asked them what they already had.
PAGE 6
Panel 1 The next morning. The Ministry boardroom again. Same officials. But this time Marcus's presentation screen is dark. No pipeline diagrams. He's holding a notepad instead.
MARCUS: I'd like to start over, if that's alright. I want to hear about the rooftop solar program. The biogas infrastructure. What you need from us to scale it.
The officials exchange glances. One of them almost smiles.
OFFICIAL #1: Now we are speaking the same language.
Panel 2 Hallway after the meeting. Adaeze and Marcus walk side by side. He's carrying his briefcase differently now. Looser. Like it's lighter.
MARCUS: The proposals I brought. I'm going to have to rewrite all of them.
ADAEZE: Probably.
MARCUS: My director is going to push back.
ADAEZE: Also probably.
MARCUS: Worth it though.
ADAEZE: Now you are getting it.
The sun does not care who owns the pipeline. It just keeps showing up.
END.
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