SOOOO handwavey. "Improve Storage" is a thing they've been working on longer than fusion energy. It's proven to be similarly intractable, and prone to bad science reporting ("10-15 years away").
Battery technology has been improving very steadily since the advent of solar and even though it is expensive if you look at the battery storage requirement as a function of PV installed power the only thing that has marred the equation is the incredible speed with which PV has become cheaper.
And no, it's not 10-15 years away, you can buy a battery backed PV system with well over a night's storage capacity today from a large number of vendors. Search for Hybrid PV systems.
Good news! They are working on that. As a society, we can research more than one thing at a time.
If your position is that we're spending too much money on fusion research, and not enough storage and solar, perhaps you could share what you think we're spending on those things, and propose a better allocation?
As basic research, it's an excellent announcement and I'm excited about it. There are all manner of interesting applications for laboratory fusion in the matter-reconfiguration space (we still have no solution for replacing helium as a resource, and there's a finite amount of the stuff available planet-wide).
But as a power source?
When the conversation moves to "So when can I run my own fusion reactor in my basement," I tune out given that I can install my own self-sufficiency solar array in my backyard right now. The energy exchange from fusion to electricity problem is already solved as long as one isn't constraining one's fusion source to a truly exotic configuration that is rarely seen in nature (given how common and powerful gravitationally-induced fusion is).
I'll be pleasantly surprised if we get to the point where fusion power generation is commercially viable, but practically speaking that's likely something for my grandkids to get excited about, at the earliest... While we can do the photovoltaics installations right now.
