Germany's clean energy drive fails to curb dirty brown coal

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6. Both sides of the coin need to be considered.

When the sun goes down, Germans will not accept losing their lights, their washing machines, their television sets, their computers. That's when coal plants make up the difference.

Germany has added a record amount of solar capacity in 2011 and 2012, and the net effect is that their carbon output has gone up - not down. Although on that day, for a few hours, solar provided 40% of Germany's energy, the average of the entire year of 2012 was a dismal 3%.

These details are significant. By relying on "zero-carbon" solar energy, Germany is going backwards.