"they could get solar power from, say, Algeria and Australia depending on time of day."
This is basically a proposal to power all of Americas at night using solar deployment in Australia? This is far outside the realm of technical and infrastructural feasability.
What about reliability? UK power connection to france has burned down a few months ago and it will take 2 years to fix, and it only moves like 2 GW
I would have thought so too, but there was a story awhile back about China working out a deal with Chile to import solar power from Chile via a trans-Pacific cable. Maybe it's just hype and nothing will actually come of it, but someone at least seems to think it's plausible.
Probably the way to handle reliability is to keep some of the fossil fuel plants in operational condition just in case. If everything is working properly they don't have to ever be used, but countries aren't under continual threat that their energy supply is going to be cut because someone damaged the cable (accidentally or deliberately).
This is basically a proposal to power all of Americas at night using solar deployment in Australia? This is far outside the realm of technical and infrastructural feasability.
What about reliability? UK power connection to france has burned down a few months ago and it will take 2 years to fix, and it only moves like 2 GW