World's largest working machine
In Janschwalde, Germany, a vast mining operation is generating 14,000 tons a day.
Owned by the Swedish company Vattenfall, it gnaws away top soil and chews into lignite, or brown coal, one of the most pollutant of fossil fuels.
In the last 3 years, there’s been an increase in demand for lignite energy due to Germany scaling down use of nuclear energy.
Germany's lignite consumption in 2013 was the highest in 20 years, ironically when the country is shifting to renewable energy.
The shift began after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, and Germany plans to phase out all its nuclear reactors by 2022.