The problem is we have no one proposing truly reasonable alternatives.
According to you.
Instead of patching what they call our "antiquated" power grid, perhaps we should actually rethink it.
But you won't do that, even a little bit.
The renewable energy sources have a common problem because they cannot provide power when it is needed with suitable reliability.
This is how I know you won't rethink it. Operating the means of production while power is highly available is the answer. We used to call this "making hay while the sun shines". Haven't heard that expression in about a decade though. Now we just want to make hay when we want hay, god damn it.
Allowing people to generate power using solar and wind, use it what they want and sell the rest to utilities sounds very good, but it does not reduce the peak capacity that the utilities must have,
Which is why we're talking about adding power storage, so that the power can be used when it is needed.
further it increases the swing between peak and minimum meaning the utilities must have capacity that can be brought online quickly and shutdown quickly, sometimes several times a day.
See previous sentence.
These "green" energy sources are not nearly as green as they could be in a properly integrated power grid.
That's why we want to integrate power storage into the grid. See, I can use buzzwords, too!
Patching batteries into the grid just delays a properly engineered solution.
You will never have a "properly engineered solution" because progress. You can only have a system that works. Oddly, ours does, most of the time. However, it has some very nasty externalities. Right now we've got spent fuel sitting around on top of reactors just like at Fukushima, reactors which are in fact based on the same design as Fukushima. There is no evidence that we are responsible enough to deal with our nuclear waste, or the waste produced while coal is burned. If we ever reach that level of responsibility, then perhaps we can revisit this conversation.
Having the smallest/smallish users capitalize the grid is stupid because they can't pay for it upfront and if made compulsory, they will pay while industry profits.
Ah yes, the "if made compulsory" FUD. You really have put nothing of substance in this comment. When you have to resort to FUD, just accept you have lost.
A smart grid where your car and laptop charge at times of minimal demand/maximum availability is also likely to be needed.
Cars already do that, so why are you even bringing this up? Besides, anyone who knows anything about power distribution knows that this is the direction the power company is heading anyway. That's part of the "smart grid" initiative. However, it's going to be a long time before your laptop has to do anything, especially since their power budget tends to decrease over time. The industrial users' equipment is already sometimes throttled by the provider, especially HVAC where a delay of a few minutes won't hurt anything.