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This doesn't sound right.

With solar a small solidstate relay can disconnect individual panels as required, or a larger relay can disconnect strings of panels.

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I was replying specifically to the "It doesn't matter if we just make enough" idea. For solar panels on a site scale you can use variable pitch panels focused on a solar collector to control your output power if you are peaking to high. Wind can use variable pitch turbine blades. Both of these configurations add a lot of cost but are worth it when talking grid scale generation and aren't uncommon in practice. The actual power you put onto the grid does need to be matched to how much is being used. Storage (hydro is the most popular it doesn't have to be batteries) allows for cheaper generation because you have a lot more options for burning off overshoots and peaks with the benefit of smoothing out dips. Without storage all of this together gives rise to weird things in practice like California selling power at a loss to Arizona and then buying it back because of the combination of subsidies and grid stability.

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