Harnessing the sun for state of the art energy efficiency.

One of Houston's newest additions? Downtown parking meters.

But sometimes going green has its drawbacks.

11 News spotted a heavily shaded meter on the fritz on Monday.    

On Wednesday, we spoke with Houston's parking management department. Each meter is linked to a central office, which should replace low batteries before they are drained. 

The meter we found not working Monday had yet to have its batteries replaced.

“It’s not doing anything,” complained Andrea Hardy and she tried to feed the meter.

As it turns out, she can't give her money away.

Turns out, that's because its after 6 p.m. the meter won't sell you time you don't need or that would put you in violation of a rush-hour tow away zone.

But there are other frustrations, especially for first time users.

“It was kinda confusing at first with the slip of paper having to put in your car,” said Anthony Scardeno.

The way the system works, you pay the meter, take the pay receipt and place it on your dashboard so that it is visible for the meter readers.

In fact, we're told at the municipal court that's the main reason folks come to fight a solar meter parking ticket; they didn't display the receipt.

But even if the closest meter is on the fritz, there are usually others nearby. Since the meters issue tickets, drivers are expected to seek out another meter to get the parking receipt.

But that isn’t all. Sometimes motorist can't read the screen because it doesn't works. That occurs because of a problem with the meter’s central processing unit.