FlashFeed

Full text

BERLIN — German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is planning a fresh attempt to meet his U.S. counterpart Pete Hegseth during a trip to Washington and Texas in September, internal planning notes seen by POLITICO show.

The proposed program includes a visit to the Pentagon and a potential bilateral meeting with Hegseth. Officials are also considering meetings with members of Congress, representatives of the U.S. National Security Council and defense industry executives.

The trip, planned for a five-day window in mid-September, would conclude in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with a rollout ceremony for an American-built F-35 fighter jet set to be delivered to the German armed forces.

The plans are still being prepared and the individual meetings depend on the minister’s final schedule.

The German defense ministry declined to comment on the plans. However, it would be Pistorius’ second attempt this year to secure a dedicated meeting with Hegseth in Washington.

The German minister abandoned the U.S. leg of a planned North America trip in May after a meeting with Hegseth could not be arranged . Pistorius went ahead with the Canadian portion of the trip, while Hegseth traveled to the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore.

The episode was a setback for Berlin as it sought direct access to the Trump administration during a period of growing uncertainty over Washington’s military role in Europe.

Pistorius and Hegseth have met before. Most recently, both were at the NATO Summit in Ankara. And during a formal Pentagon visit in July 2025, the two discussed the future of U.S. forces in Europe and Germany’s interest in the American Typhon long-range missile system as well as Tomahawk missiles.

Those questions have only become more pressing. Hegseth announced in June a six-month review of U.S. troop deployments in Europe , while Washington has already reduced some of the military capabilities it makes available to NATO. Pistorius has warned that any American withdrawal must be coordinated with European allies to avoid dangerous gaps in the alliance’s defenses.

Internal planning notes do not identify the specific weapons programs Pistorius could raise in Washington. The notes mention intended discussions on relevant procurement projects, alongside the organization of defense purchasing.

The Texas stop would provide a more ceremonial element to the trip.

A rollout is the formal public unveiling of a newly assembled aircraft — not yet its delivery to the German military. Germany’s first F-35 entered final assembly at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth factory earlier this year and is due to make its first flight and be officially presented on Sept. 18, according to Lockheed Martin .

Germany ordered 35 of the stealth fighters to replace its aging Tornado fleet, including in the sensitive role of carrying U.S. nuclear bombs stationed in Germany in the event of war.

The first eight German aircraft will initially remain in the United States, where pilots will train at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas. The first F-35s are expected to arrive at Germany’s Büchel air base in 2027.

Berlin has also been mulling an expansion of the fleet with another 15 aircraft , POLITICO previosuly reported. The planning notes, however, do not indicate whether that potential purchase will be among the projects discussed during Pistorius’ visit in September.

Full text

Recent evidence shows that energy cost pressures and a power grid capacity crunch risk becoming a bottleneck on the growth of the UK’s digital economy.

A report by Oxford Economics for the Nuclear Industry Association warns that growing grid capacity constraints and uncompetitive industrial electricity prices could drive data center developers overseas.

This comes as data center energy demands could increase fivefold by 2035 and data center operators face growing pressure for more sustainable energy in line with climate targets.

This is driving many data center developers to explore alternative supply sources such as flexible contracts and Corporate Power Purchase Agreements (CPPAs) which offer affordable, secure long-term power.

Yet many data center developers lack the resources to navigate these complex contracts or meet the high credit requirements.

There is an urgent need for creative new solutions to provide affordable sustainable power for our digital economy.

The energy chokepoint for the AI economy

The Government aims to make Britain the fastest AI -adopting country in the G7 and this will require accelerated data center expansion with AI data centers being prioritized for new demand connections to the grid. While this is welcome, demand-side connections will not alleviate the supply-side challenges from rising electricity costs to network capacity constraints.

Data centers have build times of 12-14 months yet large new renewable energy projects can face waits of 12-14 years to come online at a time when Britain faces rising non-commodity electricity costs such as Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) and Nuclear Regulated Asset Base (RAB) charges to fund new electric grid and nuclear energy infrastructure.

Ofgem has warned that data center power consumption could significantly exceed Britain’s current peak electricity consumption, risking rising energy costs.

The move towards flexible contracts

Flexible electricity contracts that allow companies to buy energy in chunks offer a potential solution to this by allowing data centers to tailor energy costs to their consumption.

Crucially, flexible contracts can be adjusted to hedge against fluctuating energy consumption for facilities such as AI data centers which have more variable patterns of energy use. This would also help avoid penalties for ramping up energy use to take on major new customers.

While fixed-price contracts can lock in long-term energy costs to offer certainty, flexible contracts enable data centers to take advantage of price fluctuations to secure cheaper power.

For example, we have a dedicated pricing team monitoring market movements round the clock. This could help facilities partially hedge against the risk of rising prices, setting a price for a portion of their consumption, while buying the rest when required to take advantage of favorable prices on the spot market.

For example, we implemented a flexible contract for an energy-intensive industrial chemicals company which included a cash-out arrangement, enabling them to lock in prices when costs are low and buy power in batches days or even months ahead as needed.

There are various kinds of flexible contract options based on the degree to which companies can forecast their energy consumption. For example, ‘tolerance banding’ which guarantees a set price within a certain range or ‘band’ of electricity consumption, can provide certainty amidst unpredictable, fluctuating costs.

As data center operators become more confident in forecasting energy consumption, this can create even cheaper options such as contracts that enable them to buy every kilowatt-hour above or below expected demand.

The CPPA model

Other contracts such as CPPAs could offer data centers a secure, sustainable, affordable power supply directly from suppliers at stable cost. Private-wire PPAs involving onsite generation could enable data centers to sell surplus power back to the grid, transforming energy from a cost into a revenue stream. On site generation could also help avoid the non-commodity costs for grid electricity such as TNUoS charges that comprise 60% of electricity bills and are set to increase to fund new infrastructure.

With targets to reduce operational emissions from buildings by 76%, CPPAs also help facilities meet climate targets by providing traceable green power. As large consumers with a relatively stable long-term demand, data centers are perfectly placed to tap into this market. Amidst growing energy price volatility and security risks, fixed-price CPPAs offer the chance to lock in power prices and supplies, providing certainty and security.

The barriers to alternative contracts

Yet there are many barriers to flexible contracts and CPPAs market for smaller entities such as data centers. These contracts can be highly complex, contain stringent credit requirements and often require 10-15 year agreements. The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, which gives renewable developers a government-backed route to market through fixed long-term price support, can also act as a competing route to market for generators.

In some cases, this can make long-term corporate offtake agreements less attractive, particularly where developers can secure greater certainty through the CfD mechanism. For smaller customers seeking greener electricity, however, this route can offer an alternative when a direct CPPA may be harder to access.

Many data center projects are run by startups or smaller entities that lack the resources for such long-term commitments or credit requirements. Data centers also present a slightly higher credit risk than other facilities because their revenue streams are not based on a few large, long-term customers but split among many customers across the digital economy.

Opening the market to data centers

There is an urgent need for creative solutions to lower barriers to entry to the flexible contract market for smaller entities such as data centers. Security deposits or bank guarantees can help some firms meet the stringent credit requirements.

Other potential solutions include parent-company guarantees where a parent company makes a commitment to cover the cost in the event of a default or intercompany guarantees where large data center customers such as Amazon offer guarantees.

There are also solutions to simplify adoption and help CPPAs slot into existing energy use. For example, PPA import sleeving contracts, where energy is pre-purchased from a generator or utility and supplied directly to a facility through the grid, can help alleviate energy costs and security risks.

Tailoring contracts to specific energy needs

Independent partners can also help data centers optimize contracts for their specific energy needs and financial situation. Independent brokers can consolidate the process of negotiating with generators, suppliers and investors, speeding up and de-risking adoption.

Brokers can also help negotiate and monitor contracts suited to the precise profile of each data center. For example, cloud computing data centers with relatively steady, predictable demand may prefer fixed contracts whereas AI data centers processing huge amounts of data for many clients have a more variable, ‘peaky’ pattern of consumption and require flexible contracts.

Data centers can also work with partners to get live market intelligence on changing regulations or market movements. For example, we offered one client an early warning service so that they were able to minimize costs during the winter triads, half-hour periods of peak demand during the winter season.

Towards a new model of data center energy

Britain’s ability to compete in the accelerating AI race increasingly hinges on the ability to mitigate the risk of rising energy costs.

Energy security will also be critical to building truly sovereign AI capabilities for the UK. Lowering the barriers to the flexible contract market could create new opportunities at both ends, providing secure, sustainable and affordable power to unlock data center growth while unlocking vital investment in new renewable energy capacity.

Yet this will require tailored, adaptable contractual models from bespoke flexible contracts to PPAs and new ways of lowering barriers to entry including reducing complexity and stringent credit requirements. This could help provide secure, sustainable and affordable long-term power to fuel our digital economy.

We list the best web hosting services: 60 sites tested to find the 10 fastest, most reliable platforms .

This article was produced as part of TechRadar Pro Perspectives , our channel to feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.

The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/pro/perspectives-how-to-submit

Full text

Science word of the day: Heliosphere

Pronunciation: HEE'-lee-uhs-feer

What it means: The heliosphere is the region around the sun that's affected by the solar wind, a flow of charged particles emanating from the sun. Think of the heliosphere like a giant bubble encompassing the sun and planets, reaching out into space at three times the distance of Pluto . This bubble protects the solar system from radiation emanating from outer space, but the solar wind can also erode planetary atmospheres. Luckily, Earth is protected by its own bubble, the magnetosphere, which helps deflect the solar wind.

How to use it in a sentence: Because the entire solar system is traveling through space, scientists have long pictured the heliosphere as comet-shaped, but recent research suggests the bubble of solar wind looks more like a sad, deflated croissant .

Can you crack our science word of the day puzzle, Chain Word ?