[Arbalest]

Yes, but will it wipe out the advantage of solar by adding cost to the generation capacity? As I said, batteries still aren't cheap, and their replacement lifetime is still not good. We could rely on future technology, but is that a sound investment plan?

If this project is viable, then it'll probably be more viable to have a massive solar farm coming from India, where the timezone shift is in the correct direction, and it would outcompete Australia.

[onethought]

I think any project is going to need some form of capacitor as a grid would just become unstable if you dump a huge amount of peak solar onto it without the consumption.

So either way you need batteries, and all the problems they bring. Just about "how many".

[Arbalest]

Sure, but that how many is a critical factor in the overall cost of energy delivered

[onethought]

Is it? That's the thing we literally mass produce in factories. I think it's the machinery to do voltage conversions and transmission that is the critical cost factor.

[Arbalest]

From a competitive point of view, yes. The conversion hardware is common in both cases, the difference is one side needs more storage than the other. As others have stated, with the propagation of EV voltage conversion equipment, that's essentially mass manufactured too now.

Edit: I'd also like to add that for something cheap and mass manufactured that we shouldn't concern ourselves with, we sure don't have a lot of it on a grid that already delivers some of the most expensive power in the world. ie one that should be able to afford it a lot more than others