Just to add some numbers here, in Sweden the amount of energy you get from solar during the worst months are a single digit percentage, while consumption of energy during the same period doubles from the average. Consumption during the best solar months drops to about half.
Solar works a bit better when consumption patterns is the opposite, and the output is more reliable.
Solar doesn't have to be colocated with consumption. There is a massive amount of available solar in Europe and North Africa, even in the winter, and HVDC (including underwater HVDC lines) makes this available.
Naturally. Build the solar in southern Europe and North Africa, and when enough countries in the route to northern Europe has built up enough transmission with HVDC, then we can start to decommission existing energy infrastructure in favor of importing solar energy from those regions. Such project can happily compete with green hydrogen, and I am sure that Central and Northern Europe are very happy to buy if cheaply offered.
An other similar available strategy would be to turn the Mediterranean Sea into a massive hydro power dam by turning the Strait of Gibraltar into the world largest power plant. Combined with solar and wind, it could act as the storage for the whole of Europe and Africa, and the energy is similar to solar completely free.