Germans turn to balcony solar panels to save money

As snowflakes gently settled on his balcony solar panels on a cold winter's day, Berliner Jens Sax checked his smartphone to see how much electricity they were generating.

The amount was modest now, said Sax, who admitted to being addicted to the phone notifications that keep track of the panels' output, "but we've saved 79 euros since installing them in August".