[MobiusHorizons]

How do you get the prerequisites for solar without access to large amounts of energy? Solar cells are made from silicon wafers which must be refined and doped to work. Maybe we could build windmills if we salvage copper and magnets, but refining even copper would be challenging without access to high heat fossil fuels. I guess you would have to bootstrap using charcoal, which would be very labor intensive.

[OkayPhysicist]

Photovoltaics are not the only form of solar electricity production. Concentrated thermal solar power can easily get into the hundreds of megawatts range.

[MobiusHorizons]

Good point! I guess that requires mirrors, but those can be made of less hard to refine materials.