I heard a long time ago about using molten salt heated by solar mirrors for something like this, but the corrosiveness of the salt proved to be challenging. I wonder if these two technologies could be combined...
This does seem like a prett niche solution because the electricity is converted into heat and then just used directly as heating - which removes a lot of the utility of electricity.
It is a great solution for places where heating is the primary use of electricity and I hope it finds broader applications.
Roughly a quarter of global energy is directed towards industrial heating. There are many "hot rocks" companies who have been commercializing ways to time shift cheap/free daily solar to night or even longer stretches.
I personally like Rondo's pitch[0] which is stacking concrete bricks into "heat batteries".