[mrDmrTmrJ]

Solar power in Germany has a ~1-2% capacity factor. Winter heating demand also means energy demand (and power prices) peak in the winter. So any renewable energy source at 50-100x high cost per kw/h (with nearly a 100% winter capacity factors) will be competitive with solar in the winter.

Power prices show huge temporal, seasonal, and geographic variance. So LCOE (Levelized Cost Of Energy - i.e. average cost) arguments miss that the ability to sell power when power prices are high is critical. Key thing that SBSP as an idea has going for it is high capacity factors at the time of high prices.

To your point, if the idea is to succeed, someone would have to make a SBSP plant that is way less complex than current proposals.

[hef19898]

Winter heating in Germany is covered by gas, not electricity. There is no competition here. In fact, one could use surplus renewable energy at close to zero marginal cost to produce green LNG, the efficiency wouldn't matter. Store that gas for winter or something like that.

[Schroedingersat]

Sodium acetate has a heat of fusion of 289kJ/kg and a price of around $400/tonne

For low grade heat you can just store it directly using some black pipes at $5/kWh of storage skipping the electrolysis and the pv steps.

Might need some kind of cleaning after 5 years, but it should break even especially if scale pushes prices down a bit.