In summers there can be virtually unlimited sunlight near the poles. Think: Scandinavia.

So what's an easy-to-store way to stockpile it? Methanol? Ammonia? What else?

I'm thinking household-scale here. DIY.

The intensity is low, though, and the weather can be rough on panels in the winter. If it's possible to stockpile the energy in fluid/gas form, it's better to produce it in Sahara and then ship it to wherever it's needed.

For household-scale I only have a proposition regarding storing/generating heat, namely compost.

A compost pile produces a surprisingly large amount of heat. If you run a hose through it you can have sufficiently hot water all winter.

You could maybe use it to produce biogas and burn it in a turbine, but that's anything but household-scale.

As for electricity you won't find anything better than batteries at the moment.

Or import it as gas/liquids from other countries, which probably accounts for the majority of energy in the majority of countries today.

EVs and renewables will decrease the amount of imports needed for most countries, but a reduced amount might still be needed for some nations.

Only difference will be a less cartelized supply since there's a lot of countries that can set up solar and wind for export.

It’s expensive to capture co2 though. And once you do that, it’s cheaper to sequester the co2 and burn nat gas.

Sequestration at scale isn't free and isn't proven technology. Carbon Capture and Storage is clearly a part of the picture for a carbon neutral economy, we are too late to do without it. But I don't think we have a full picture yet of the relative importance of sequestration vs syngas.