Reuters Breakingviews delivers agenda-setting financial insight. Its global correspondents react to stories as they develop, delivering sharp and provocative commentary on big financial news as it breaks.

America is discovering the hidden cost of green energy. California faces rolling blackouts by 2015 because its aging electricity grid is ill-equipped to husband the sporadic nature of wind and solar power. The rest of the country is not far behind. Upgrading the nation’s infrastructure to avoid this fate won’t come cheap.