Those Li-Ion storage battery systems are, IMHO, a big disaster waiting to happen. Even if nothing goes wrong, the battery life isn’t anything close to utility company scale. Old fashioned lead acid batteries, if cared for, can last 10-20 years. We use them in power substations and have for many decades. Power plants are built to last 30-60 years.
But these Li-Ion - just look at your iPhone too see how long they’ll last. After 5 years, they don’t hold nearly the amount of energy they did when new. That means that they’ll need replacement within 10 years if the storage facility is going to remain useful for the many decades that it’s supposedly needed.
The only purpose of these giant battery packs is to make available, the energy from the solar farm, assuming that there is any, at times when the sun don’t shine. Which, in areas where there isn’t a lot of sun, could be about 18 hours a day.
And yes, the rare earth materials that are mined for these storage systems are environmentally nasty. Not to mention the dirty, nasty mining operations that take place to extract them. And if something DOES go wrong (which it will eventually), you’ll have a serious, dangerous mess in the area.
If you’re going to store energy, pumped hydro power is a much better solution. They built TVA’s Raccoon Mountain pumped storage facility in the 70s - it’s still going strong today. I think up there in MI, there’s the Ludington pumped storage plant, possibly others.
Another great energy storage scheme, though not in favor these days, is that huge pile of coal sitting next to the coal-fired power plant. Can’t speak for everyone in the industry, but it was common to have at least a 30 day supply on site at the plant, with a buildup to 50 or 60 days if the United Mine Workers were threatening to go on strike.
This push to go “green” is a huge boondoggle, as you well know. There is no climate crisis, and there is no need to litter up a ton of farm land to make these marginally available solar farms. They are doing it mainly to “look cool” and to gain a huge tax credit.
Nuclear power❗ It is so obvious that even the French are doing it.🤷