Hey, look what you can buy via the Detroit News. But it will be worth it, you know, to save the entire planet. Right?

Via Spiegel International:

The grid operators are required by law to give priority to these “clean” forms of energy when feeding electricity into the grid. The only problem is that the sun and the wind are very unpredictable. The fluctuations complicate their work. “The job has become much more stressful,” says Kleinekort. “The grids are reaching maximum load more and more often.”

And this is only the beginning. In the coming years, the German government plans a massive expansion in renewable energy and expects it to make up 30 percent of total power production by 2020. Giant wind power projects are in the works for the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. At the same time, the Mediterranean countries intend to utilize the massive potential of solar energy with the Desertec project in the deserts of North Africa.

Wind power from the north and solar energy from the south: If this fantastic vision becomes reality, the fragile balance could be thrown completely out of kilter. “The grid is prepared for anything, just not the requirements posed by renewable energy sources,” says Klaus Töpfer, the former head of the United Nations Environment Program and today a representative of Desertec.

When all this great ‘free power’ starts coming on line, it will unbalance the power grid.

Of course going green with solar panels will cut down on pollution, right?

Via the WaPo:

In China, a country buckling with the breakneck pace of its industrial growth, such stories of environmental pollution are not uncommon. But the Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co., here in the central plains of Henan Province near the Yellow River, stands out for one reason: It’s a green energy company, producing polysilicon destined for solar energy panels sold around the world. But the byproduct of polysilicon production — silicon tetrachloride — is a highly toxic substance that poses environmental hazards.

“The land where you dump or bury it will be infertile. No grass or trees will grow in the place. . . . It is like dynamite — it is poisonous, it is polluting. Human beings can never touch it,” said Ren Bingyan, a professor at the School of Material Sciences at Hebei Industrial University. (emphasis added)

Toxic chemicals to manufacture solar panels that will create havoc on the power grid.

The green energy movement is not all its cracked up to be.