THE ONE solution, that is. Obvious, but never said often enough.

I just found another of many, many pieces going over why renewables, especially photovoltaic, cannot be THE solution because, in a nutshell:

• “Solar panels on every surface” seems like an easy fix as long as you don’t look too closely at the processes involved. Solar electric panels are great at generating electricity. That is not the issue though. What [many places] need is heat. And solar electric panels are just shy of useless in heat generation.
• [The main,] big concern with stating that “renewables” are universally good: few places can make and maintain renewable infrastructure.
• [Problem is, most of those who preach certain solutions are…] urbanites, who have a huge blind-spot that comes with being an urbanite: Everything in an urbanite’s world is imported from someplace else.
• [The reality is that there are MANY factors that] tip the balance away from using renewables to generate heat [in favour of] more localized solutions: all places need to look to their own resource lists and come up with ways to meet needs without importing stuff or exporting waste

That post says nothing new, or revolutionary. If you find it linked here, it is because (without denying that renewables should play a much bigger role than today) it is crucial to never forget that simple, monolithic solutions very seldom are real solutions to real problems.