EDF will make a positive return on its proposed £12bn investment in Hinkley Point even if the nuclear plant is completed four years late and 25% over budget, says a new report from Barclays. “Many people would likely expect Hinkley Point C to destroy shareholder value, possibly even if it went ahead on time and on budget,’ says analyst Stephen Hunt, but the report suggests that even with delays and overruns Hinkley would generate a return of 7.2% – above EDFs estimated 6.9% cost of capital and so “still creates some value for EDF shareholders”. The report notes that while Hinkley is a “large and risky project”, EDF’s current share price does not reflect the value it was likely to create.

National Grid will reveal the winning bids this Friday for one of the world’s biggest battery storage projects, which will help to manage peaks and troughs in UK electricity production. 37 companies have submitted bids for the scheme to supply 200 megawatts of power, mainly using utility-scale battery arrays. Bidders include America’s AES, RWE of Germany and the British company RES, as well as Japanese companies. The contract will be awarded in chunks of up to 50 MW to at least four different operators.

The National Grid’s push for hospitals to use back-up diesel generators is “highly questionable” because it will cause air pollution in the vicinity of patients, a thinktank says. National Grid is encouraging NHS sites to sign up for schemes where they will be paid to use their generators for electricity routinely, not just in the event of a power cut. But, in a blog post, Policy Exchange’s head of energy and environment Richard Howard warns that “whilst this is desirable from a security of supply point of view, it is highly questionable from an air quality point of view – particularly since hospitals are typically located in urban locations.” Diesel generators emit significant amounts of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter which can be “extremely damaging to health”, notes Howard.

Oil explorers Soco International and Cairn Energy have been reported to UK regulators for allegedly failing to inform investors about the risks that climate change poses to their businesses. The complaint, filed by environmental law firm ClientEarth, argues that Soco and Cairn do not disclose in sufficient detail in their annual reports that the physical and financial threats posed by climate change amount to a material risk. “Failing to adequately disclose climate risks is failing to mention one of the most important risks facing the company,” said Alice Garton, the ClientEarth lawyer handling the case. Both Soco and Cairn deny the claims.

Oil prices fell this morning as analysts doubted upcoming talks between oil producing nations would rein in oversupply. On Friday, the Times reported that Brent crude hit its highest price in two months following comments by the Saudi Arabian energy minister about a planned meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Algeria next month. The news helped to drive crude oil up 20% on its lows from this month. However, analysts at Morgan Stanley now say the price rally looks “overblown”. Regarding the upcoming producer talks, the bank says an agreement is “highly unlikely” and that there are “too many headwinds and logistical challenges to a meaningful deal”. Elsewhere, in the Financial Times, Nick Butler takes a closer look at the “summer mirage of rising oil prices”. In related news, the Times reports that a ceasefire between the Nigerian government and a militant group that attacks oil rigs and pipelines in the Niger Delta could see oil prices fall further. “While other groups in the oil-rich south are unlikely to adhere to the truce, any pause in the attacks could exert downward pressure on the oil price,” the Times says.

“Renaissance beckons for the once great industrial hubs of northern England and Scotland, and the unexpected catalyst may be stringent global climate controls.” writes Telegraph business editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in the last of his feature articles on UK energy. “[A]lmost no other country on earth is so well-placed to combine energy-intensive manufacturing with carbon capture at a viable cost,” Evans-Prichard argues. Yet Britain has not yet launched carbon capture and storage (CCS) at home, he says, after the Cameron government halted a £1bn scheme for two CCS projects. Britain has a chance to revive its programme when Lord Oxburgh reports to the government next month on the future of CCS, notes Evans-Prichard. For industrial clusters with financial roots in UK oil and gas, such as Teesside, “it may be the difference between revival and irreversible decline,” he says

In a letter to the Guardian, Prof Averil MacDonald responds to an earlier letter citing radon as a potential risk to health from fracking in Yorkshire. MacDonald, chair of industry group UK Onshore Oil and Gas, quotes a recent Public Health England (PHE) report: “PHE recognised that radon may be released to the environment from shale–gas activities, as is the case with existing natural gas supplies, but at concentrations that are not expected to result in significant additional radon exposure.” “As a population we are fortunate to have a world-class system of regulation in this country,” she argues: “Our need for secure energy supplies from the UK is reinforced our commitment to those standards.” Last month, Carbon Brief interviewed MacDonald, discussing fracking and climate change, “zero-carbon gas” and why she is confident that the UK public can be won over on drilling for shale gas.

“Should Theresa May take the axe to the troubled Hinkley Point nuclear project, it will propel wind and solar power further into the limelight,” writes Terry Macalister, the energy editor of the Guardian. But “for renewable technologies to become really effective,” he says “Britain and the rest of the world need breakthroughs in electricity storage.” Macalister speaks to various experts about nuclear energy’s cost, growing confidence in wind and solar, and a new generation of hi-tech battery storage.

The Observer carries an interview with Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge, who argues that summer ice cover at the Arctic will disappear in the very near future – views which are not shared by the majority of Arctic scientists. Wadhams fields questions on whether he is alarmist, why we should be concerned about an ice-free Arctic summer, and why he is despondent about global carbon emissions ever being cut sufficiently to limit climate change. In a separate Observer article, Horatio Clare reviews Wadhams’ new book, “A farewell to ice”.

Strategies designed by Local Flood Authorities to deal with flooding and coastal erosion in England generally only meet minimal legal requirements, according to new research. A study of 38 examples examines the extent to which flood strategies meet the legal obligations set out under the 2010 Flood and Water Management Act, under which local authorities are responsible for preparing, applying and monitoring a local flood risk management strategy consistent with national policy objectives.

Since a goal to curb warming to below 1.5C emerged from the Paris Agreement last December, most of the literature in the topic has focused on the technological challenges, says a new study, sidelining the considerable social implications. Drawing on lessons from first- and second-generation biofuels, the study describes how fieldwork and case studies of land use change, agricultural and energy system change can help to better predict the consequences of rapidly ramping up carbon dioxide removal.