The Swiss company Alevo opened a battery manufacturing plant in the USA this year.  But the batteries are not for mobile phones.  They are making batteries that can store megawatts hours of electricity and they plan to sell them to grid operators.

These batteriee will smooth the consequences of irregular demand during the day.  They will eliminate plans for gas-powered sqeaker stations.  Alevo estimates that if a grid as big as the American west were to use 18gw worth of batteries, it could save $12 billion a year.  Alevo has no North American contracts yet, but it does have contracts with Guangdong, China,

Today we count on pumped hydro. But pumoed-to storage depends on friendly geography  Hills and valleys are not present in many areas.  Alevo is not alone.  Tesla is building a plant near Reno Nevada. Stations that regulate output in wind farms have already been built.  Toshiba is building one based in lithium batteries,

Alevo thinks these batteries can not only deal with irregular demand, but also with the regular supply.  Sun power is highly irregular as is wind power.  Cheap grid scale storage would overcome irregularities.  Renewables could compete on cost alone, a tantalizing prospect.