... You keep talking about how decreasing efficiency is the same thing as increasing cost and is not an effective solution and saying the problem is the reliability of solar power. However, if you made solar power random and unreliable it would have the exact same effect. It would be random, but so...

I mean, it's the same size as a personal laser defense system. It's bigger than a shield or a whole roboport. It's 1/2 the height of a whole fusion reactor and 3/4 the width. I'm confused why something which seems so simple takes up so much grid space and I feel like it should be reduced.

Guess what? The huge problem with storing renewable energy IRL is the fact that renewable energy is UNRELIABLE. If we had guaranteed sun and tides and winds every single day of the year we would have battery farms to hold the night, every night, just like in Factorio. Getting a household a few hour...