That would be a question that few readers of this NYT article could answer. The article describes the rapid growth of solar power in Germany, a country that gets relatively little sunlight. It notes that government mandated subsidy are a major factor, telling readers that these subsidies. The article reports that the subsidies currently cost consumers about 1 euro a month, but then cites a legislator opposed to the subsidy complaining that the subsidy could rise to 8 euros a month by 2015, which would supposedly "soak up" 120 billion euros at that point. The arithmetic of this one doesn't quite work. There are around 50 million German households. If they pay 8 euros a month in subsidies for solar energy, this would come to a bit less than 100 euros a year. That would translate into a cost of 5 billion euros for the country as a whole. This is quite far from the 120 billion euro figure. Either this number is fabricated or there is some other form of subsidy that the article has neglected to mention.
--Dean Baker
