Finance
Germany embarks on 'radical change' to finance renewables
A government compromise in Berlin envisions radical changes to the country’s renewables subsidy approach and details a fleet of backup power plants to underpin the country’s coal exit.
Designed in the late 1990s, Germany’s renewable energy law guarantees wind turbine and solar panel owners a 20-year high price for electricity fed into the grid. The country quickly became famous for its pioneering Energiewende.
This paradigm is on the brink of change, the government announced on Friday (5 July), against the backdrop of fiscal strain and an identified need for backup power generation.
“Our goal is an electricity market that ensures a secure, affordable and greenhouse gas-neutral supply of electricity with at least 80% from renewables,” reads the coalition government’s internal agreement.
To that end, two fundamental principles of the renewables subsidy scheme will be changed as of 2025.
Firstly, there is no remuneration for power produced during times of negative prices when there is already excess power being supplied to the grid. The move pulls forward an EU requirement by two years.
Secondly, there is a paradigm shift in how renewables are supported by the state.
“The expansion of new renewable energies is to be switched to investment cost subsidies,” the agreement reads, adding that this should be done “to allow price signals to have a distortion-free effect.”
Currently, government support is linked to electricity production, ensuring that renewable developers can ensure a minimum revenue level for every unit of power produced.
From guaranteed earnings to a lump sum investment subsidy is a leap – “The experiment of a radical change to investment cost subsidies contains the risk of market uncertainty,” said renewables lobby group BEE on Friday.
For the liberal FDP (Renew), the smallest government party, making the change was long coming.
“I am delighted that we are starting to phase out the renewables subsidy scheme [EEG],” said MP Michael Kruse, the FDP’s energy spokesman, in an accompanying press release.
The free-market party’s opposition to the scheme is in part due to its high cost—subsidising renewables will cost “€17 billion, that is the current calculation for next year,” said FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner at a press conference in Berlin on Friday.
Not all are happy with this agreement to phase out the traditional mechanism, even within the government.
“From today’s perspective, it is neither feasible nor, strictly speaking, intended to subsidise investment costs, rather only as a test model or laboratory,” said MP Nina Scheer, the left-of-centre SPD party’s energy spokeswoman, in emailed comments to Euractiv. The SPD are a member of the government coalition.
“In my opinion, the model contains obvious investment risks. These must be avoided at all costs,” she added.
The transition would need to happen in the coming years to have a meaningful effect, given that the government similarly vowed to stop supporting renewables once coal is no longer being burned for power – 2038 at the latest.
Safeguarding the coal exit
A second major milestone in the German energy transition will be the construction of new gas power plants – some of which can run on hydrogen.
“The construction of new power plants will secure the coal phase-out,” explained Robert Habeck, minister of economy and climate action, on Friday. The coal exit for 2030, which is “ideally” envisioned by the government, is largely considered to be unattainable.
Within the year, Berlin hopes to tender five gigawatts (GW) of new gas power plants for immediate construction, abandoning plans for a fully hydrogen-ready fleet. This would be followed by another five GW of plants that must run on hydrogen, but only from the eighth year of their operation. Two GW of old gas plants should be retrofitted.
Half a GW of dedicated first-day hydrogen power plants will also be built, alongside another half GW of long-term energy storage facilities.
The plants will be put into a “comprehensive, technology-neutral capacity mechanism, which will be operational from 2028.”
Andreas Jahn, senior advisor at clean-energy think tank RAP, explains that the plan “represents an important compromise that secures the transformation of the German electricity system.”
All of this will require market subsidies that have been “in principle” greenlit by Brussels.
“Following intensive discussions between the Commission services and the German authorities,” the two agreed on “a way forward,” a Commission spokesperson told Euractiv.
“Germany plans to launch the first competitive bidding process at the end of 2024/in early 2025,” they added.
[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Alice Taylor]
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Finance
Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help
A girl from a disadvantaged rural family in central China topped this year’s gaokao, attracting numerous live-streamers eager to finance her education, which she declined.
The home of 18-year-old secondary school graduate Han Yaping in a Henan province village was recently bustling with live-streamers.
This attention came after Han achieved an impressive score of 699 out of 750 in the gaokao, China’s national college entrance exam.
She has received offers from China’s two leading universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University.
Han’s accomplishment is particularly remarkable given her family’s impoverished circumstances.
Her mother suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine, preventing her from working. Her father, who earns a living through farming and odd jobs, serves as the family’s sole provider. Han also has a younger sister.
Finance
UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a landmark review on Monday that proposes recommendations to regulate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the financial decisions made by consumers.
The review, titled the Mills Review, anticipates that both consumers and firms will start delegating “more financial decision-making to AI systems,” including for agreements, initiating transactions, and executing decisions “within agreed parameters.” One of the key findings of the review outlined that while AI can help bridge advice gaps and “support growth,” there remain risks “associated with fraud, cyber security, and consumer harm.” Conducting the review, Sheldon Mills highlighted that “AI can also amplify risks: bias, discrimination, exclusion, opaque decision-making (particularly when multiple AI models interact), misleading or hallucinatory advice and erosion of consumer trust.”
The review stated that presently, one in five adults in the UK are “already open to AI making decisions for them,” particularly when decisions feel “complex or high stakes.” It found that roughly 26 percent of the population “trust general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for financial advice” with little awareness that such platforms provide no “formal routes to recourse” or protections.
Overall, the Mills Review identified four areas that it anticipates will be impacted by AI in the financial sector: “the transformation of firms,” “new consumer journeys,” “a reshaped competition landscape,” and “amplified financial crime and cyber risk.” The FCA projected the shift in how consumers and firms consult AI to take place by 2030.
The Mills Review put forth seven “priority” recommendations to be considered by the FCA Board. It recommended that any transitions to autonomous AI models be monitored and that regulatory frameworks and perimeters be adapted and secured. The review called for the strengthening of “system-wide coordination and oversight,” the scaling up of the FCA’s AI Lab to enable it to support AI models and innovation for agentic finance, and an “AI-enabled agentic supervisory model” to be built and adopted. Finally, it recommended that a trusted “public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service” be developed.
The FCA announced, in the press release, that it will launch an AI “good and poor practice publication” in late 2026.
Finance
Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – The Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approved a one-year audit contract capped at $131,750 plus $225 per hour during a virtual meeting Monday, along with a new finance director job description.
The contract is with Mauldin & Jenkins Certified Public Accountants, an Atlanta-based firm, and covers the 2025-26 fiscal year and the restatement of the 2024-25 fiscal year and ancillary services through FY 2029-2030. The work is set to be completed by Nov. 15.
The board approved the contract in a 5-0 vote.
Audit contract details
Interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch said the cost is already accounted for in the district’s budget.
“And is actually less than we expected given our current situation — we were thrilled with the bid,” Koch said.
Koch said she believes this is Mauldin & Jenkins’ first school district audit in Kentucky, but that the firm works with school districts of more than 100,000 students throughout the Southeast.
“Quite frankly when I spoke to the folks at KDE they were thrilled because we’re running kind of short of auditors who want to do school district audits — so all around I think this was a win-win for everyone,” Koch said.
New finance director position
The board also approved a new job description for the position of Director of Finance. Acting Superintendent Dr. Bill Bradford said the title will replace two associate director positions.
“Which will not only save the school district money but it’s also going to streamline our work and align internal controls to make room for a more efficient unit,” Bradford said.
Koch said the position will be posted as soon as possible following the board’s approval.
Closed session
The board went into closed session for more than an hour to discuss pending investigations that could lead to employee discipline. When the board returned, it took no action and adjourned the meeting.
Copyright 2026 WKYT. All rights reserved.
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