[XorNot]

I mean that to me seems like the obvious answer if we're doing solar: don't really do storage, just wrap the generating capacity around the Earth and have it follow the sun.

Nation-states would likely still retain strategic reserves of thermal powerplants, but they wouldn't be run, and the budgeting for them would be under national defense and interpreted through that lens (i.e. you can buy it down with strategic alliances and diplomacy).

[svnt]

Why wouldn’t the right answer just be don’t grid-tie and switch back to DC for everything. Almost everything gets simpler and cheaper.

[ben_w]

Switching everyone to DC is expensive; for one, we'd have to replace all the AC transformers on the existing grids.