zlacker

Oil prices went negative due to an exogenous, rare event shocking demand. No one expected that would recur. (And indeed, many people did try to figure out how to store oil in one-off vessels, short term leases for storage, etc., though I don't know if anyone succeeded.)

Solar panel production on the other hand is exponential and growing much faster than overall power consumption. It can be very, very favorable to build batteries and that's why grid scale battery production is taking off. There is in fact a storage business dependent on energy arbitrage over time, it's lucrative, and all indications suggest it will continue to be lucrative for many years to come.