Where does energy come from when an acid undergoes electrolytic dissociation? Does it come from the heat of the solvent?
The term your looking for is “heat of solvation,” if I’m reading your question correctly, (although I’m not sure what the term " electrolytic" refers to in this case). The positively-charged proton released from the acid gloms onto a pair of free electrons from the oxygen in a nearby water molecule, creating a hydronium ion. The surrounding water molecules orient themselves around the ion so that their negative dipole (Oxygen) face the positive ion, creating transient dipole-dipole interactions, with a concomitent decrease in energy.