i think this true. many power companies are pushing for "smart grids". basically a gid full of status sensors and remote controls. it will give them full status of where power is on the whole grid, where they can send power and take it from, and figure out how much to charge people exactly, in real time.
As far as renewables go the most important part of a "smart grid" is exactly as you said, allowing them to see what is being generated by those renewables in real time. Along with existing weather modeling that allows them to ramp up or down power generation from their plants. As it is now we could put solar on every home in a city and it wouldn't change the amount of power an electric company would be required to have online because they don't have real time data on the power being produced by those solar systems.
i would think with this type of grid, solar power could be collected and redistributed without batteries. every home would have solar and wind harnessing, and they would all share that power intelligently.
It actually already works like this just without the "intelligent" part. A grid tied system, which is the most common and by far the most economical, feeds power into the grid when it produces more than you are using at that moment in time. Most people aren't even home when their solar electric system is producing the most power and there electric meters literally spin backwards (well, most of them are now digital but you get the point). Other than small battery based backup systems I wouldn't advise anyone to go "off grid" unless there is a really good reason. Batteries are expensive, add complexity, vastly increase maintenance and last 1/3 to 1/4 of the guaranteed life span of the panels and that is only if the owner doesn't mess with the controller to draw the batteries down further which a large portion do.
right now its not feasible because the way the system is you need batteries in your basement as a buffer for those times when power isnt being harnessed. but if the grid was smart, it could precisely redistribute power coming in and going out of every single house. batteries could still be used, but not needed.
No. The grid literally is your buffer for those times. The rest of the time you are either using a combination of the power you are producing and grid power or selling power back to the grid. If you already have grid power batteries are
not required to put solar on your home and in almost all cases are not advisable either. Most states, if not all by this point, have net metering laws so the power company must give you a 1-1 credit until you go over your usage (calculated yearly in my state). In very simple terms they have to buy it from you for the same price they sell it to you and NOT the price they pay from utility level produces BUT once you reach your yearly usage they can pay you the going rate which is a fraction of what you end up paying.
Laws vary from state to state but the above is generally pretty close.