Solar along the Sun Belt

[Tinker]

People have been talking about how one of the big problems with Solar is that the energy grid doesn't really store electricity, it's all basically used or lost on-demand. But with time differences, wouldn't it be possible that Florida could power California in the morning and California could power Florida in the Evening? That would leave I guess a six hour window of lack of power.

What are some good solutions to this problem besides storage? Perhaps having fuel powered resources that only run at night?

[noddy]

ive been pondering this from the other angle - non battery storages.

because water is such an issue over here, using excess energy to pump water as high as possible means you get both the distribution of that water for free via gravity and the possibility of powering turbines from that gravity feed (modern water wheels)

another option would be using underground caves for pressurising cool or warm air (as appropriate) which can then also be reused for heating or cooling, plus power turbines on the way out.

[Azrael]

We could connect up the U.S. grid to the Canadian one, then have high voltage wires across the Bering Strait, connecting North America with Eurasia. There would be sunlight somewhere on that massive grid pretty much 24/7.

[Tinker]