What happens if the sun shines onto your solar panels, and you have too much power. I guess you could cover the panels with a blanket in such a case, but that would be manual intervention …
Do you need to consume all electric power you generate? Ways of wasting power include … heating water or electrostatics.
Most people would put surplus power they produce into the grid, but this is connected to government / cooperate regulations and paperwork, some would like to avoid that.
An island solution with solar panels is not connected to the power grid at all…
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Nothing happens, the controller will open the circuit and prevent the current from flowing.
Optimal solution is biting the bullet and getting batteries, the controller will prevent them from being overcharged, and you will need stored energy on an island.
You could try gravity storage like the other person mentioned but it’s less efficient. During the day the solar panels power a pump/motor to move water/heavy object up high, and at night the water/object moves back down and powers a generator. There’s a lot more loss since you’re going:
solar energy>electrical energy>rotational energy>hydraulic energy/potential energy>rotational energy>electrical energy
and each transition will have losses due to friction and heat.
Although novel, there are also existing deployments of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel_storage_power_system
Very interesting. I knew large scale versions were used in grid stabalization, but never knew smaller scale versions were available. That would be ideal for op, as there is essentially no maintenance involved.