What is "not efficient enough"?

As a first guess, one would think it makes more sense to eat 30% loss (so you need 1/0.7=143% installed capacity) than to need 200% capacity plus batteries since it's night about half the time on average. And afaik HVDC is more on the order of ~15% loss

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rootusrootus a day ago | parent [-]

Aside from the physics, HVDC doesn't compete successfully on cost. It's cheaper to overbuild PV and use batteries.

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Aachen a day ago | parent [-]

... aside from the physics? What factors into this cost calculation other than the physics of solar panels, batteries, and cables?

	▲	rootusrootus a day ago \| parent [-]
		Infrastructure (heck, just the conversion points alone are a huge part of the cost), but also regulatory hurdles like getting rights-of-way. Running an HVDC line is quite expensive; last time I saw the numbers crunched, it was basically impossible to make it work financially, no matter how efficient the lines were.