> And in an innovative twist, the battery site can also provide short-circuit current in response to a fault, just like conventional power generators.
Sure. But, how much? The turbine at a nuclear/coal/CH4 power plant can handle upward of 10x the rated current for several cycles. The amount of fault current that synchronous machines can provide will always run circles around solid state solutions. This capability is essential for stability in downstream fault scenarios.
You can't really "saturate" a synchronous machine in the same way you can a farm of solid state electronics. Certainly, the 1GW turbine will eventually fail from an overcurrent situation, but it's going to last way longer than a semiconductor junction in the same situation.
> It programmed Blackhillock’s inverter to hit 250 percent above nominal current to deliver the 140-millisecond pulse that NESO requires, says Aaron Gerdemann, a business-development manager for SMA. After that, the device will back down, allowing the circuits to cool.
We can of course also simply add a clutch between the turbine and the generator allowing the grid to drive the generator and providing that physical response if we somehow realize we can’t do without it.
And if you want physical spinning machines, there is hydro which is obviously big in Scotland because there's plenty rain.