[gaoryrt]

Why go throught the extra solar -> electricity -> resistive heating -> soil instead of directly doing solar -> heating a metal rod -> soil?

Cutting out the conversion steps should be more efficient.

[3eb7988a1663]

If the electricity is free, efficiency does not matter that much. The capex of the storage system might matter a lot more. In which case, heating up a big mass might be more economically feasible than battery installations.