Most of our powergrid is heavily assisted by solar and we still have energy problems in San Diego. Also the highest price per KwH in the country ($.50-.60 between 4-9PM). Decentralized localized (neighbor-to-neighbor power) grids are the way to go. Probably would be much safer too.
My current 8kw system produces significantly more energy than I use. I'm generating around 500 excess Kwhr each month. If a peer-to-peer energy distrbution model was used you could sell of your energy to neighbors at far better rates than SDGE pays out ($0.02 kwhr). It would be like an automated energy exchange where supply and demand dictate the prices. I think Tesla is working on something like that.
8kw might run an AC in texas where its +100 degrees.
Its been around 100 deg where I live in SD this past week. I had a 4ton SEER 16 Goodman central AC unit installed about 2 weeks ago. The home is 2200 sq feet with 11 ft ceilings. At 72 degrees the overall energy production/consumption is almost perfectly balanced in terms of kwhr. Due to time of use pricing the cost doesn't balance out. However, the accumulated energy credits more than offset the costs on the hot days. This home does have excellent insulation and that can make a big difference as well.
A battery system would work with a reasonably efficient AC assuming you have clear skies on the hot days. If not, just run a supplementary gas generator (if you live in CA and are working from home you've probably already invested in one this past year). Last year we had around 8 days of outages. One outage lasted 3 days. When you're working from home spending a bit extra on energy infrastructure doesn't seems perfectly reasonable.
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