Now, who will stop the wind?

The spectacular growth in recent years in the number and size of renewable energy sources across the European Union -- particularly wind and solar power -- driven by high subsidies and government rhetoric on climate change has left the national electricity grids scrambling to cope. Estimated costs of strengthening, upgrading and smartening the grids are put at up to €100 billion ($138 billion) over the next decade alone. And that only takes into account onshore networks.

A study earlier this year by German company Energynautics commissioned by Greenpeace found that grid upgrades totaling up to 140 GW of capacity would be necessary across the European Union and eastern and northern Europe to cope with the vast increase planned in renewable energy.

Germany produces only about 5 gigawatts of actual wind power, and when recently that output shot up to a record of more than 20 GW on a particularly windy weekend, cross-border connections to grids in neighboring countries had to be shut down because they couldn't handle the surging power. The Germans need to build 17,000 kilometers of new grid just internally.

With the United Kingdom, for one, aiming to get some 30 GW of electricity from wind farms in the North Sea within the next decade as part of its E.U. target to get 15 percent of its power from renewables by 2020, there are also proposals to build a giant subsea grid to bring that power ashore.

Problems are not just of power loss and heat generation over long distances, but also of public acceptability and cost. As with onshore wind farms, there is frequent public outcry over the placement of power pylons while placing it underground has technical issues like cooling.

Countries are still struggling to build their own networks, let alone when it comes to crossing borders and the only country really doing it is China, using European technology!

So do we see a problem of plenty, or that of being unprepared? And do we learn a lesson from the early beginners?!