About 10-15 years ago, I used to visit to East Germany quite regularly. It was a better place to learn German because back then, most Easterners or "Ossis" as they called themselves, didn't speak English. There was also a lot of infrastructure investment going on, although plenty of people weren't going anywhere fast careerwise. Above all, living wasn't expensive there. Since then and particularly with other Central European states joining the EU, East Germany has been emptying of people and private investment has been scarce.

So I was intrigued to read this piece about how Germany's solar boom was leading to a lot of solar company investment in the East. Companies that are mentioned here are Solarworld AG and Conergy AG. One of the interviewees says that according to an article he read, by 2015, there will be more people working in renewable energy in Germany than in the car industry. I find that quite hard to imagine. Right now, directly and indirectly, a quarter of the German workforce is dependent on the car industry. And unlike renewables in Germany, automakers are successful in spite of government regulation rather than because of it.