I’m currently staying in a family run cyclists hotel in Spain. It’s completely off grid. There’s a load of ground mounted solar and a shed full of batteries which are in the middle of an upgrade. They do also have a diesel fired generator which they try to minimise the use of. The interesting problem in the Summer is that they have to find consumption when the PV is running full whack and the batteries are charged.
I can relate, though much smaller scale. In the winter I have enough for basic needs (though the fridge goes off for Dec-Jan) then in the summer, having run the washing machine, hoover, charged everything, it's totally galling to see the solar controller just dumping all the power as heat.
A place I stayed in Portugal with a decent year-round solar setup used the excess to heat the swimming pool. At the other end of the spectrum, in Colombia (where they don't have the seasonal issue, just finance) it was normal for the power to go off at 4AM and come back on at 10. You had to remember there was only a single flush of the lavatory in the morning, and an early shower was out of the question.
On a general level, as we move to renewables, there may need to be a rethinking of how and when we use electricity to make the best use of it. We can't just expect someone to turn up the gas taps or chuck some more coal in a turbine to cope with any and all demand.
