GERMANY'S Energiewende, or energy transition, is an ambitious policy aiming to move the country's electricity generation away from both nuclear and fossil-fuel sources. More a slogan than a coherent plan, the term represents the German government's desire to cut carbon emissions by 70% from 1990 levels by 2040, while switching off all the country's nuclear-power plants by 2022. In the long term that means generating more energy from renewable sources. But more energy from dirty fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, will be needed in the meantime. Yet so far this year, it seems that one of the policy's unintended consequences has been to put cleaner gas-powered plants out of business.

At first glance, the new policy should have encouraged the use of gas over coal. But the German government's hasty decision in 2011 to close down eight nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan left a gap in the country's energy mix that was soon filled by coal. Over the next two years the amount of electricity generated from the sooty fuel increased by 11%; in total, more than 45% of Germany's electricity supplies are now produced by burning coal.

In contrast, the amount of energy generated from gas has fallen sharply. It dropped by a third between 2011 and 2013, and so far this year by a further 24%. That seems strange given its relatively green credentials. Coal-fired power stations emit twice the amount of carbon dioxide for each unit of electricity generated that gas ones do, as well as producing fly ash that releases 100 times as much radiation as a nuclear plant with the same generating capacity would emit. The worrisome result of this has been to raise greenhouse-gas emissions, but without any corresponding reduction in electricity generation from nuclear sources.

That outcome is the exact opposite of the intentions of the original policy. The main reason for this appears to be that the sharp fall in the price of solar energy in recent years has undermined the economics of gas more than it has coal. In Germany, as in America and Britain, there is a sustained peak in electricity demand in the middle of the day, with consumption falling overnight. Solar power neatly meets the noontime peak, often producing too much at that point in the day, while at the same time making no contribution to power demand at all overnight. Since gas-fired plants are easier to switch on and off quickly than coal and nuclear ones, the gas plants used to be used to fill any gaps at peak times. But with the larger peak now satisfied by the growth of solar and other renewable-energy sources, gas plants are now underemployed. In the past seven months, they have rarely passed 50% of their capacity; many are now losing money for their owners.

With the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continuing to threaten the supply of gas to Europe, reducing Germany's dependence on gas may seem a good idea. Although talks between the European Union, Russia and Ukraine restarted in Berlin on September 26th, to try to settle their ongoing dispute over gas deliveries, agreement still seems far off. Germany has already annoyed the Kremlin by re-selling some of its imported gas to Ukraine. Escalation of the dispute and further trade restrictions remain real possibilities.

If Germany only needs gas to generate electricity at the peaks of demand, could it live without Russian sources? There are renewable-energy sources that can cope with fluctuations in demand, such as biofuels, hydroelectricity and waste incineration. But these sources may have already reached their potential. Germany incinerates more waste than it produces, hydroelectric plants need the right geography to be viable, and there are questions over the green credentials of biofuels produced by intensive agriculture.

A better way to improve Germany's energy security would be to connect the country's grid to more geopolitically reliable sources. Building better power links to hydropower-rich Scandinavia and other European countries with spare generating capacity has already been proposed, as has expanding import facilities for liquefied natural gas, so as to boost flows of cheap gas from America. However, all these projects will take time to complete, and with the price of wholesale electricity so low in Germany at the moment, it is uncertain whether it will be possible to arrange finance for such projects in the near future. But with tensions still so high between Europe and Russia, the question remains whether Germany can afford to wait much longer.