Do we currently have enough renewables installed in (eg) the the UK for batteries to increase capacity factor? Is there ever enough renewable production that energy is lost?
One of the benefits of batteries is that they can be spread around and used to alleviate bottlenecks. Building transmission is very expensive, so this is a good early market for them.
These are called Non-Tranmissikn Alternatives or Non-Wires Alternatives:
NTAs are programs and technologies that complement and improve operation of existing transmission systems that individually or in combination defer or eliminate the need for upgrades to the transmission system.
In the UK it's easy to see that Wind and CCGT plants operate in inverse of one another, when it's windy most of our power comes from the wind and the CCGT are switched off. And conversely when it's calm the CCGTs produce most of the power.