Headlines: August 2026

With autumn just a month away and Christmas four months away, August is a good time for the traditional wondering along the lines of “Where did the year go, it was February yesterday!” It is also time for headlines, so without further ado,

#1 Elon Musk, the World’s Most Famous EV Pioneer, Is Now Leaning Into Fossil Fuels

Last week, SpaceX disclosed plans to build a natural gas power plant in Grimes County, Texas, where the company is developing a huge new chip manufacturing facility.

At other campuses in Tennessee and Mississippi, Musk is relying on dozens of gas turbines to power data centers he says are necessary to train the artificial intelligence at the center of his business plan. Earlier this year, Musk even bought a gas turbine manufacturer as a personal investment, regulatory disclosures show.

Oh, really? What happened to powering the whole world with solar panels that would only take up a total area the size of Portugal? Musk said that a few years ago, and even this year he called on Spain to become Europe’s power plant by covering its countryside with solar panels because almost no one lives there anyway and “Relatively sparsely populated areas of, for example, Spain and Sicily could generate all the electricity that Europe needs.” Sure, go on and try it, between gas investments. And speaking of solar electricity and Europe,

#2 Solar eclipse threatens to tighten Europe’s electricity squeeze

A rare solar eclipse next week will pile pressure on Europe’s “tight” power system, as heatwaves have forced nuclear and coal plants to switch off across the continent and low water levels curtail hydropower stations.

Luckily, Spain was prepared for thе sudden drop in solar this time and there were no blackouts but isn’t it unfortunate when the whole galaxy seems to be against you, in addition to your own planet? First it was heatwaves and droughts, now the Sun decided to hide. But it’s all right, thanks in no small part to Octopus Energy in the UK, which told its customers “When the sun goes off grid, we want you to do the same.” Adorable. Equally adorable is another country with big green ambitions. Not that Octopus is a country. Yet.

#3 Australia Doubles Down on Data Centers Using Renewable Power

Australia’s federal government will press on with a nationwide push to ensure new data centers use renewable energy, pledging to pass laws despite opposition to the move from some regional administrations.

[Data centre] Projects will be mandated to prove that they are fully offsetting their power use with renewable energy sources that might otherwise not have been built, [energy minister] Bowen said.

Admirable idea to make sure people don’t pay for data centres’ electricity thirst. It is totally going to work, and if it doesn’t, Australia’s grid operator can draw inspiration from Octopus Energy and tell people to go off the grid. For the greater good and support of technological innovation. On the topic of innovation, but in the financial world this time,

#4 Debt-Fueled Solar Firm GoldenPeaks Accused of Fraudulent Lending

Loans for tens of millions of euros made between GoldenPeaks entities last year may have been an illicit bid to shield assets from creditors, or “fraudulent conveyance,” according to Karol Tatara, who is handling the restructuring of the Polish subsidiary, Spectris Energy. The loans caused that unit to collapse, he said.

This is a company that had accumulated $1.6 billion in loans from sharks including Brookfield Asset Management and Berenberg Bank. This same company was probably, by which I mean certainly, receiving subsidies from the governments of countries where it was active. And it still went broke. Must be that cheap solar. And speaking of cheap solar,

#5 Heatwaves push European gas prices close to Iran war highs

European gas prices have approached their highest levels since the start of the Iran war as Wednesday’s solar eclipse and yet another heatwave add to demand for gas-fired power generation while maintenance at a key Norwegian gasfield will take longer than planned.

We were told by reliable sources that wind and solar are generating an ever-growing portion of Europe’s electricity, which would suggest to any sane mind that demand for other forms of power generation would decline, and yet this appears to not be the case as higher gas prices would suggest higher demand for the power generated by gas-fired plants. Perish the thought, of course, but might gas turn out to be indispensable? This is an awkward thought but never mind because Europe has made up for it by scoring massive progress on SAFs.

#6 Europe widens its lead over US, Asia in switch to cleaner jet fuel

European airlines surged ahead in their use of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, last year, while carriers in the US and Asia fell further behind, according to a Bloomberg analysis of dozens of airline environmental filings.

The growth has largely been driven by mandates in the EU and UK, which kicked in last year and require 2% of jet fuel to be SAF. That obligation steps up to 3.6% this year in the UK.

As the Bloomberg report quoted points out, “When it comes to cleaner jet fuel, the stick is proving mightier than the carrot.” This is, of course, quite true, the only potential problem with it being that if you overuse the stick the object you are applying it to might end up dead. Just a thought. We end this month’s headline journey with a rhetorical question.

#7 Are global oil stocks big enough to weather another six months of US-Iran war?

As the U.S.-Iran war drags on with no end in sight, oil traders and policymakers are grappling with a critical question: ​are global oil stocks enough to offset what could become the biggest supply disruption on record?

The answer is far from clear, depending not only on how ‌much oil remains in storage, but also on how much of it can actually be released.

Unlike Reuters, I intensely dislike obfuscation when not used for comedic purposes. The answer is “No”. The show goes on.

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