Paul,
Doing your Goebbels strategy again?

No Aiden, storage does not solve the problem.
Answer the question;
When a still night occurs and you end up next morning with a flat
battery, where and when will you get a full days electricity to recharge the battery ?
Not off the grid, it is flat out running the country.
It is easy, you have another wind & solar system to recherge the
battery.
Err catch 22 what if the next day is windless and overcast ?
Oh, you have a battery twice the size.
Then the next night may also be windless ! Bigger batteries ?
More duplication of turbines and panels ?
They had a very long period of wind drought in Europe.
That is why they got into so much trouble buying nuclear power from France.

I reckon every bridge that spans a tidal estuary or river could have a generater underneath to produce power for local areas. Currents could have a loche to allow watercraft access to other sides. Polarities would automatically change with tidal flows. This would be less intrusive than giant wind terbines killing all our night and giant birds.

Josephus, there have been a number of tidal and wave systems installed.
I think there is a tidal one working in France and one was planned for
the Severn River in Wales.
I don't think any of the wave ones are still operational.
The salt sea environment causes maintenance problems I gather.
There was one trialed at Pt Kembla but it is now a heap of rust on the beach.

Bazz,
Sorry about not responding earlier.

>When a still night occurs and you end up next morning with a flat battery,
>where and when will you get a full days electricity to recharge the battery ?

I used to think the answer was to use the existing gas fired power stations. Going from 99% to 100% renewables would be harder than from 50% to 95%, but could probably be done by obtaining the gas from non fossil sources.

But now I have a different answer: from the grid. Australia will become one of the world's biggest exporters of green hydrogen, and we'll need a massive overbuild of solar power (and to a lesser extent, wind turbines) to power that. But it will only be done at times when electricity's cheap. When it's expensive, power will be diverted away from hydrogen production. And some of the electrolysers used to produce hydrogen are able to run in reverse (as fuel cells) so hydrogen can be turned back into electricity if need be.

We have backup 12 volt power for lighting when there is a power failure it is charged by a water wheel in the creek and boosted by an old car generator powered by a pushbike when someone wants some exercise.
However this setup is kept mainly for sentimental reasons and the tax deductible diesel generator does the job, but unfortunately not everyone can run a standby generator.