<i>The lack of a truly environment-friendly energy storage is and will be keeping renewables from ever truly replacing fossil energy.</i><p>Fortunately this is slowly changing. Different technologies are right in different situations, but the battery story in particular is undergoing rapid development.<p>For example flow batteries[1] usually don&#x27;t require rare metals, are (fairly) cheap, reliable and are slowly becoming available.<p>One of the first uses is on cellular towers in South and Central America where the power grid isn&#x27;t reliable.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Flow_battery" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Flow_battery</a>