If it’s bad now (current heat wave), it will be worse when it gets very cold and cloudy with no wind. (Demand higher, generation lower, and solar goes to zero at night when it’s coldest.)
We are a long way from being able to provide batteries to get through week-long wind droughts. And even if we could, the capital costs would be crazy. Granted that big capacity in standby (probably gas fueled) generation isn’t cheap either. “Cheap” green energy is a figment of the imagination.
The world’s biggest battery installation is at the Moss Landing power plant on the California coast. It could power the US for a couple of seconds.
“the capital costs would be crazy” — yes, trillions of dollars.
First you need to overbuild the wind / solar power plant system because they have horrible capacity factors. Then you need to build an enormous secondary power plant (the energy storage system or gas turbines) to back up the poor primary power plant performance (wind or solar). Third, you need tens of thousands of miles of copper wires to collect the power from those wind and solar generators scattered allover the landscape. Fourth, the view shed of the beautiful USA is destroyed. Fifth there will be staggering disposal costs to remove the relics and remediate sites. All the companies will be bankrupt and you will have a trillion dollar removal, disposal ad recycle cost that will be borne by USA taxpayers.
You truly could not find a more horrendous way to generate electricity if you tried.