You and the article are missing several things, Germany is already one of the most energy efficient industrial country in the world and the regulations are drastically forcing companies and people to save energy. Houses which are built nowadays are nearly passive house and this by law. Also, the German bank for development is giving everybody around 100k€ loan at about 1% to improve the energy efficiency of old and new houses.

Germans are extremely serious about energy use and savings and they know how to do an energy balance. I wish this level of engineering would cross the border to France a bit more often.