Freshwater - One Reason to Nix Solar?

Solar power, like every other fossil and renewable source of electric power (other than wind-generated power) is dependent upon adequate supplies of fresh water. The amount of water required varies with the type of process used to convert sunlight into electricity.
2 Major Types of Solar Generators

PV-based Solar Panel Power Generation
Source - europlas.co.uk

Solar Thermal Power Generation
Source - treehugger.com

Photo-voltaic (PV) and Solar Thermal are the two predominant technologies for converting sunlight into electric power.
Solar Thermal requires orders of magnitude more fresh water supplies than does photo-voltaic power generation. For example,a proposed Solar Thermal Power Plant to be located in Amargosa Valley, Nevada, required 1.3 billion gallons of water per year. This volume represents 20 percent of the Valley's available ground water supply - water that the desert Valley badly needs for other uses. This water usage level is of the order of use required by a coal-fired plant.
Photovoltaic power generation, on the other hand has a very minimal water requirement once it is installed and running. But its power generation capability is also limited to that of a single home or two. 
Sustainability

Shale gas extraction
Source - news.consumerreports.org

Depending upon definition, when water use is a criteria, some renewable energy sources begin to look unsustainable.
Even shale gas, will be deemed unsustainable when its water use is a criteria
Sustainable Electric Power Generation

Wind Power
Source - treehugger.com

Wind power is the only electricity generating option that has virtually no dependency on freshwater.

Bottled Safe Water - Good or Bad?

Like the saying "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder," local conditions and people's circumstances determine the acceptability of every action taken to quench thirst.
Water in Bottles

A sheepskin water container
Source - aliexpress.com

Carrying and transporting drinking water for personal and community use in containers fashioned from animal skins has been an accepted practice forever.

Source - rusmilitary.com

Early canteens for water carried by soldiers were fashioned to resemble historical containers created from animal skins.

Soda and Mineral Water Bottles
Source - sha.org/bottle/soda.htm

The first glass bottles were produced around 1500 B.C. but it was only after 1903, when the automatic bottle blowing machine was invented, that people started carrying their individual water supply in glass bottles.
For a long time, soda drinks and drinking water (containing minerals of many many kinds) was sold in glass bottles in stores where the bottle was recycled.
The Plastic Bottle

Source - plasticsareforever.org

It was only in the 1960s that plastic bottles (the PET bottle) became cheap enough to be used for dispensing water and other drinks.
The popularity of water in plastic bottles is so great that each year about 38 billion plastic water bottles end up in US landfills.
The water in these bottles can cost $1.50  or more - water that is available for free from public water foundation or for less than a penny at home.
Are Plastic Bottles Good or Bad?
The correct answer is: It depends!
As safe drinking water is easily and commonly available everywhere in the developed world, buying water in a bottle at 10,000 times what it would cost to get from a tap, may be seen as foolhardy and wasteful by some.
But what if bottled water was the only safe water available for miles around i.e. what if there was an implicit guarantee that tap water would be unsafe? Would the purchase of a bottle of water be then seen as foolhardy or wasteful?
Unfortunately, the former case is the typical case in the developed countries of the world, while the latter situation is the typical situation in developing and underdeveloped nations.
Safe drinking water in plastic bottles, at a cost that the lower class can easily afford, may be just the solution for people in the developing and underdeveloped world, when their tap water is unsafe!

Nigeria - Bottled Water Brand
Source - deparkbottling.com

India - Bottled Water Brand
Source - waterreview.in

Also, if the switch to water bottles engineered with cornstarch. instead of the PET process, can be quickly deployed worldwide, we will also be reducing the plastic decomposition time from 700 years to about 80 days!

Commerce - A Water Scarcity Elimination Tool

Scarcity of safe drinking water is a problem as old as civilization. One solution in common use till the end of the twentieth century was commerce
Commerce

Source - housemedicalclinic.com

The most common definition of commerce is 'the exchange of goods and commodities' 
i.e. a transaction between two parties (individuals or societies or countries or geographical areas) that involves an exchange of one good or commodity from one party in exchange for another good or commodity from the other party.
Commerce is, of course, the backbone of economics and applies to everything that exists both natural and artificial.
Commerce is also behind many of the deals we have today that involve transporting freshwater over extremely long distances.
Los Angeles, California
Commerce between water-scarce regions and regions with surplus water was a common solution in earlier times.

Source - usc.edu

Source - circleofblue.org

In 1905, this city. with few local freshwater lakes or streams, acquired groundwater rights under 300,000 acres of land in the Owens Valley, to secure safe drinking water for its residents. The city built an aqueduct system to transport this water from Owens Valley to Los Angeles, a distance of over 220 miles.
In late 2011, Los Angeles' Municipal Water Authority has sued a local Ovens Valley Water District (Mammoth Community Water District) to ensure that the water in a creek, on land Los Angeles owns is exclusively available for use by Los Angeles only.
With safe drinking water security once again a looming concern, Los Angeles City is taking steps to reinstate its ownership on Owens Valley water.
in anticipation of water scarce times.
Globally, the aqueducts that exist on every continent and virtually every country are examples of commerce being a tool to eradicate water scarcity both within nations and between nations.

Is SAFE DRINKING WATER the New OIL?

Analysts everywhere are eyeing the problems that humanity is having with safe drinking water supply, both in terms of quantity and quality, as possible new sources of large profits. "Water is the new oil" is the mantra of analysts seeking to publicize investment opportunities

The Global Water Industry

Source - snetglobalwaterindexes.com

The global water industry, about $360 billion in size, is the third largest industry in the world - behind petroleum and electricity. 
Globally, over 90% of water utilities are owned by governments. In Europe, 45% of utilities are privately owned with many owned and operated by publicly traded firms. In the US, only 10% of water utility companies are privately owned.
The opportunity to invest, of the kind that exists in the oil industry simply does not exist in the water industry.
Oil is NOT Water
Oil and water don't mix but they weigh about the same. Depending upon the type of oil and its density, 1 gallon of oil weighs 6-8 lbs, while 1 gallon of water weighs about 8 lbs. So, they are very similar in weight, but water is a resource that thrives on motion - water must always be moving. If held in a stagnant mode, water deteriorates quickly or simply evaporates or disappears into the ground. 
A Million Thirsts

Source - renalfellow.blogspot.com

Source - narrativeandotology.blogspot.com

Thirst is location specific. Each thirst reflects the unique cultural, human, industrial, agricultural, ecological and environmental issues of a location. The kind of pollution that may need cleanup is different in each location. 
The big similar solutions (like digging wells, building Dams, constructing aqueducts, etc) that supply the needs of a region have all seen their best days.
So how does an industry evolve such that it meets all the urgent needs? In three possible ways:
- Tap an existing global industry with a robust infrastructure available to support a variety of needs. Oil has just such an infrastructure today, but water does not.
- Create a global industry. It took over 75 years to go from individual oil wells serving a local need, to any oil well being able to serve a need anywhere in the world. Do we have 75 years and the billions to invest in building a global water industry?
-  Ignore "use, waste and demand" to focus only on supply. Desalination could fit this bill. Unfortunately, however, nearly all of the 15,000 desalination plants are privately owned but not publicly traded. Also, revenues from individual plants are so low that they are not viable candidates for stand-alone investment as water plants.


Thus, Water Cannot Be The New Oil - Those of us who envision participating in a 'market' in water, a market akin to the markets that exist for trading other natural resources, have a long wait ahead of us.

A Common Remedy for Differing Freshwater Consumption?

The most commonly quoted global statistic is that 70% of the world's freshwater is used in agriculture, 22% to make the industrial (i.e. non-agricultural) goods we cannot do without, and 8% for residential and personal use by people. What this statistic is missing is that this global breakdown is not the situation in any country
How Freshwater is Actually Used

Source - Scientific American.com

From the accompanying chart it does indeed appear that the global segmentation of 70%-22%-8% for agriculture-industry-residential is quite correct but the segmentation of individual countries is quite different. 
The only point of agreement might be that, generally speaking, the major users of freshwater do consume the most in the agricultural industry and the least in peoples' home.
Some conclusions:
- China and India, the countries with the largest numbers of people, do use the most water as could be expected. The US is the third larger user of freshwater in the world
- Nigeria, the last country in the top 10 list, seems to consume nearly all its freshwater to grow food, with tiny amounts spent on personal and industrial needs.
"Virtual Water" Exporters and Importers
Virtual water is defined as the amount of water consumed to create a product that is exported or imported. The exporter if the product is labelled an exported of virtual water while the importer of the product is known as an importer of virtual water. Some interesting conclusions:
- The US, an extremely large consumer of freshwater measured in terms of "per capita consumption" is also a large exporter of virtual water through all the food stuff it exports
- Japan, a consumer of small amounts of freshwater, is the largest importer of virtual water.
Resolving the Freshwater Crisis
Recognizing the different ways individual countries consume their water, implies that a different remedy may be required for each countries' specific situation. This conclusion must, however, be balanced against the "time" it will take to develop and deploy all the many necessary solutions.
Would it not be ideal if we could all pool our resources to develop a solution applicable to everyone?
Making this point again using different words:
- What is the equivalent of the "cell phone" for the freshwater industry?
or,
- What, in the freshwater industry can lead to the same result as the cell phone did in the personal communications industry, namely, hook the 60%+ people who had no hope of getting a land-line connection in their lifetime, but got connected using wireless technology embedded in the mobile handset!