[markatkinson]

Zambia has had almost 100% renewable energy for a very long time. It's only recently with more extreme weather patterns that energy consistency is becoming an issue. We've been exporting electricity for decades.

Despite that the country has remained incredibly poor and continues to circle the drain.

So I'd suggest, "they don't need X they need Y", is always going to be wrong because what is really needed is a blend of everything deployed in a very specific order depending on the country.

[photochemsyn]

If you want to have an industrial-scale civilization, well, 100% renewable might sound good but the scale is not enough for factories and modern infrastructure needs. Compare and contrast the average usage in Zambia vs. the USA, per person:

per capita Zambia = 669.89 kWh

per capita USA = 11,695.27 kWh

Now the USA isn't the most efficient user of electricity (probably the least), but still, asking the US economy to function with only 1/20th the normal energy use? Implausible at best.