> A wild thought just hit me: if batteries and solar get cheap enough, could the power grid as we know it become at least partially obsolete?
No. Its definitely part of the solution but there are some issues that make it impractical as a full replacement.
In summer my panels make more power than I know what to do with and my batteries are full by about 10am. In winter only about 30% of my power comes from my solar. Heavy cloud cover typically takes my solar down to about 80% of what I get on a sunny day.
Falling battery prices will help to cope with rainy days but the winter drop is hard to avoid and running your own generator is VERY inefficient (i.e expensive) compared to a power station.
Yes - everyone talks about diurnal variation with solar panels, but the seasonal variation is more important, especially at high latitudes. Up here at 56N I get an annual variation that looks very dramatic: https://flatline.org.uk/daystats.html
No. Its definitely part of the solution but there are some issues that make it impractical as a full replacement.
In summer my panels make more power than I know what to do with and my batteries are full by about 10am. In winter only about 30% of my power comes from my solar. Heavy cloud cover typically takes my solar down to about 80% of what I get on a sunny day.
Falling battery prices will help to cope with rainy days but the winter drop is hard to avoid and running your own generator is VERY inefficient (i.e expensive) compared to a power station.