Slate: Its been a long, dark winter in Germany. In fact, there hasnt been this little sun since people started tracking such things back in the early 1950s. Easter is around the corner, and the streets of Berlin are still covered in ice and snow. But spring will come, and when the snow finally melts, it will reveal the glossy black sheen of photovoltaic solar panels glinting from the North Sea to the Bavarian Alps.
Solar panels line Germanys residential rooftops and top its low-slung barns. They sprout...