> "It's just way less expensive per watt to put a bunch of solar panels in one spot on cheap land in the desert and pipe it through the existing distribution network."
If that were true people wouldn't be buying solar panels for their homes because grid electricity would be "way less expensive" and it wouldn't be worth it. Which means either it isn't true, or the grid companies are too busy profiteering and it's not "putting the grid operators in an impossible position where everyone unfairly hates them" it's "grid operators putting themselves into an impossible position where everyone deservedly hates them".
No. People put solar panels on their homes, but crucially, they still receive power from the grid when their solar panels are not producing electricity.
People who don't have solar panels pay for electricity at 11:00AM. That's lucrative for the grid operator between 11:00-3:00 only -- when the duck curve is low. When demand peaks at 5-6pm, the grid operator pays boatloads of money to import power from elsewhere, burn expensive fossil fuels to service the demand.
Crucially, the grid operator is limited on pricing: they cannot "gouge" consumers at 5pm -- they must keep prices below a cap. Utility pricing is extremely regulated, it's set essentially by the state.
What you're doing when you set up solar panels on your home is actually freeloading. Your electric bill is less than it should be: you take power (at an artificially low rate) when it's super expensive, and don't take it when it's super cheap. This is very very bad business for the grid operator. They're also mandated by law (!) to keep your house hooked up to the grid and run distribution lines all over the place. Just in case you want to plug your car or run your AC at 5pm. Try getting a permit to build a new transmission line anywhere and see whether that's good business. If you have solar panels on your house, you are being subsidized by them -- not the other way round!
Timing is everything here. The United states has on the order of minutes of energy storage across the electric grid.
If that were true people wouldn't be buying solar panels for their homes because grid electricity would be "way less expensive" and it wouldn't be worth it. Which means either it isn't true, or the grid companies are too busy profiteering and it's not "putting the grid operators in an impossible position where everyone unfairly hates them" it's "grid operators putting themselves into an impossible position where everyone deservedly hates them".