Renewable energy has won the public relations war, and for the right reasons, namely, that climate change is an indisputable truth and, as much as we can, we should try to salvage the situation for future generations.

But this renewable push isn't as sustainable in an emerging back yard as it is in the developed climes of, say, Europe. Germany has led that push and has been feted for its achievements.But when there isn't enough solar power, Europe's biggest economy simply taps into the supply from neighbour France's nuclear-powered stations.The interconnected nature of that grid isn't replicated in Africa. Zambia, whose main source of energy is hydro but which is suffering its worst drought in almost a century, has experienced power shortages and food security problems.story_article_left1Unfortunately, much like the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, Zambia can't just latch on to its neighbour's power grid, because its entire neighbourhood is in virtually the same position, if not worse. There's also the matter of transmission lines, which are in need of much investment.So even if Botswana or South Africa were blessed with abundant power - which they aren't - getting power to the Zambian copper mines would still prove quite a stretch.The most pertinent question with the power situation on the continent and in South Africa is base-load power. There's no solution without a base-load one.The progress made since 2008, ground zero in South Africa's energy crisis, has in the main been on the renewable front. And the numbers aren't that impressive.Through the government's independent power producers programme we've added only 2100MW of capacity, climbing to 4800MW in two years. What's actually delivered depends on factors such as wind and sunlight.I'd suggest that SA has better supported US, Spanish and Chinese green industries in their back yard, a bugbear of mine as we've imported their good work.Fossil fuels such as coal, which still provide the basic source of the country's electricity, have been singled out as an emissions evil.It was understood that the World Bank's loan of close to $4-billion to South Africa in 2010, the first such loan in the democratic era, to complete the construction of Medupi, was the last such deal to fund a carbon project.And as part of the deal, SA would fund a wind project.story_article_right2Given that the World Bank's largest shareholder is the US, and one of President Barack Obama's commitments in his first term was to stimulate the green economy, the hardball was understandable.With four centuries of coal under our earth, there was no way we could commit to not adding to our fleet of coal-fired stations. That would have been to believe that renewable energy was the solution. But until South African-born entrepreneur and US billionaire Elon Musk finds a way to store it, it isn't.It's coal or nuclear.As the years have passed, nuclear has got wrapped up in political whispering about how our president will or won't benefit from a Russian deal over others. The upfront capital costs are proving another stumbling block. But with a reactor's 80-year life, surely some funding mechanism can be found that doesn't cripple the state?Long term, our energy security is a base-load question.The investment case for renewables is being tested with the biggest US bankruptcy filing this year of renewable energy giant SunEdison.E-mail derbyr@sundaytimes.co.za or find him on twitter @ronderby..