Take a look at Wivenhoe dam / Splityard Ck pumped hydro storage. In Qld.
It is piped, was built in 1980 by the forward thinking state owned power station commission. It has a low head I think about 65mtrs at lowest. It has been in service all this time with low ongoing maintenance costs.
It has two turbines totalling 600Mw. Which is available on demand within seconds.
Sadly, the governments (& privateers) have made no significant steps to building such infrastructure which is needed to support the renewable power generation.
It is foolish and ridiculously expensive to rely solely on privately owned batteries to back up the grid.
The only exception might be off grid personal household solar/battery. At present pricing, there is an amortisation of 20 years on this (for my home), which proves that at that level, solar is not only viable, it is financially cheaper than wholesale grid supplied electricity.
I don't believe the arguments against solar on cost grounds will stand up in the long term.