Brussels is considering classifying gas as a partially sustainable technology under its landmark green labelling system for investors who want to plough their money into sustainable finance. Many of its 27 member states are fiercely protective over their right to use sources such as gas and nuclear power as part of the transition to net zero emissions.

Gas power stations used to determine the high peak prices for electricity during midday hours. The first solar power stations benefited from these high prices. But now that solar produces enough electricity around midday, prices have dropped. Moreover, peak is now in the evening and solar faces a noticeable discount to the around-the-clock price.

The German government has agreed to pay nuclear operators 2.4 billion euros in compensation for an early nuclear shutdown. Germany had decided to decommission nuclear power plants by 2022. It is still unclear, how the taxpayers’ money will be divided between the electricity producers, such as RWE, EnBW, E.ON and Vattenfall.

A deregulated market that rewards power generation without requiring reliable capacity ready to supply power as needed naturally tilted the field in favour of intermittent solar and wind power. The knife-edge fragility of power grids in Western Europe and the UK which have imposed policies that forced rapid growth in renewable energy capacity is no surprise.

Sweden is in the green elite. Yet a cold snap provoked a political storm this winter when, in order to keep the lights on, the authorities started up a 52-year-old oil-fired power plant. A furious debate centered on the wisdom of decommissioning nuclear plants, exposing a divide over plans to rely more on wind power for everything from transport to factories.

We have targets for closing coal-fired power stations and for achieving net zero; we spend rather less time thinking about how to keep the lights on during times of stress. We invest in more intermittent forms of energy while the provision of energy storage lags well behind, resulting in several close shaves recently as the wind dropped and the sun went down.

The French electrical grid could support an electricity mix made up almost 100% of renewables in 2050. However, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the operator of the French electricity transmission network (RTE) in a recent report warn about the massive effort required to develop the technologies to achieve this.

Regional assets invested in funds with an ESG tilt hit a record €1.1tn. Investors flocked to ESG funds last year. Once a fund is marked with a sustainable investment label, it makes it more accessible to some pension funds and other big investors that are looking for that label. However, there is no global consensus on what constitutes an ESG fund.

The world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturers have committed to eliminating their net emissions of greenhouse gases, but reducing the carbon footprint of their production process may mean customers have to bear some of the cost. Towers are particularly problematic, because of the large amount of steel they contain.

British government and the wind industry claim that costs are falling. The analysis finds that offshore construction costs rose until the early 2010s and show no sign of a sharp decline. Costs have increased by about 15% for every doubling in total wind capacity in NW Europe, mostly because of using sites that are more distant from shore and in deeper water.

European Central Bank executive board member Fabio Panetta said a digital euro might be the innovation that sees negative interest rates passed directly to consumers. Panetta said officials keen to prevent bank runs could make the hoarding of digital central bank money unattractive by “penalizing remuneration” of holdings in excess of 3,000 euros.

Cryptocurrencies play almost no role in the staid world of corporate treasury, where protecting a company’s financial liquidity and cash reserves are key. Their massive volatility has ruled them out. Corporations invest their cash in very high quality, short-term fixed income securities, and are willing to accept a relatively low rate of return.