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And it's easier to connect two wires than it is to connect two pipes.

All the little tubing collecting the hydrogen stream trickling out of these things seems like it would be a nightmare to create and maintain.

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Over short distances sure, but once you're talking thousands of km a pipeline is way simpler.

That's nice, but it doesn't help the local collection network in the solar field. Using large separate electrolyzers driven by conventional PV lets you avoid that.

Unless the destination of the electricity is also next to the local collection network the pipeline can be simpler. It's certainly not going to be a worse idea.

You didn't understand what I said. I'm not arguing about a pipeline. I'm arguing about all the little hydrogen carrying piping in the solar field. This is needed to bring together all that hydrogen being generated at the hydrogen-generating solar collectors, before it even gets to a pipeline.

Simpler just to avoid all that and generate the hydrogen at large separate electrolyzers at the side of the utility-scale solar field (say), and then inject into the pipeline.

Should be noted that that will work too. In fact that is the plan for most facilities. However, you will still need a separate electrolysis facility. With this you just pipe hydrogen into bigger pipes. It could be cheaper to implement it this way.

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