[skrause]

You always combine solar power with wind power, that already solves more than 90% of the storage problem. In places like Europe the darker winter is usually quite windy.

For example, last Sunday Germany covered more than 100% of its own power load with renewables even though winter is approaching. Only a small part of that was solar power, most electricity was generated by wind turbines: https://www.energy-charts.info/charts/power/chart.htm?l=en&c...

[pfdietz]

Usually that works, but not always. It's the last part that's the killer. When you optimize against historical weather data in Europe to produce steady power at minimum cost, a wind/solar/battery/hydrogen system cuts the cost in half compared to wind/solar/battery.

As I said elsewhere I'm thinking ultra low capex thermal storage will edge out hydrogen here, though.