[brc]

You still need the conventional energy base. You cannot have a grid reliant on solar, because sometimes the sun doesn't shine for days on end.

Solar can top up the grid, and correlates well with air-conditioning driven demand on hot days. But it doesn't coincide with peak load - especially in winter - and will always be a diffuse power source.

You would not only need a cost effective storage solution (and none is in the foreseeable solution) you also need a lot of available space. Even if the panels were virtually free - there still remains large problems with solar power as a baseload energy source. If you solved the storage problem - cheaply - you'd still need 4 - 5 times the collecting capacity to get close to being able to reliably produce power over even a 48 hour period.

It's a great boutique energy solution, particularly for remote usage. But large scale electricity generation will remain the dominant energy source well into the foreseeable future.