[epistasis]

With microgrids, you have multiple days of storage. Maybe you have emergency backup generators, but that's unlikely. There's a cost tradeoff between extra solar capacity (on cloudy days you still get energy, after all) versus the cost of storage. It's all solvable, just takes money. As transmission would. And often, 3+ days of battery storage is going to be a looooot cheaper, particularly at the load levels that a lot of microgrids will see.

Though I don't think developing areas will necessarily have large industrial needs, it turns out that industrial can be easier than residential if most of the industrial need is process heat. Because we have super super cheap tech for storing high amounts of heat for many many days. Lots of storage startups are exploring this space now.

Having multiple days of battery storage is 5-15x more expensive than thermal storage at the moment, IIRC.

[RetroTechie]

Storage may not even be needed. Or be very small compared to what's used elsewhere.

Eg. the boats mentioned in article: if their 'solar roof' is big enough, and they're only used during daylight hours, they might be run without any batteries. Simply PV panels -> converter -> motor.

Likewise, some activities that use more power could be limited to those hours where solar power is plenty.

On a large AC grid it's difficult to control the consumption side. But on a small/local grid (or single-building setups), much easier: short lines between producers & consumers - literally.