The Offshore Wind Bubble: Built on Subsidies, Bursting on Truth

Germany showed the world what happens when the public money stops Britain is next

Germany was meant to be the global poster-child for offshore wind.Billions spent.Endless political cheerleading.Huge promises of “cheap green power.”Then Berlin pulled back the subsidies.RWE walked away from offshore projects almost overnight.

No subsidies, no turbines.No taxpayer guarantees, no investors.It wasn’t a technical failure it was an economic truth finally exposed:Offshore wind only survives when taxpayers underwrite the risk and the returns.And what happened in Germany will happen here the moment Reform UK ends renewable subsidies in Britain.

Because without guaranteed state support, the UK’s offshore wind industry doesn’t just wobble .It collapses.

The truth behind the turbine fairy tale

Politicians have sold offshore wind as:

Cheap Reliable Market-driven

A pillar of energy security

But look underneath the PR and the picture changes fast.Offshore wind doesn’t pay for:

❌ Backup generation when the wind drops

❌ Massive transmission cables and upgrades

❌ Curtailment costs when we have too much

❌ Stabilisation lost when baseload is retired

❌ Storage (because it still doesn’t exist at scale)You pay for those.In your bills.In your standing charge.In hidden levies buried in regulatory language.This isn’t market economics , it’s state-mandated profit protection.A wealth transfer dressed up as “green leadership.”

Reform UK will end the illusion and force energy to stand on its own feet

When Reform withdraws the subsidy cushion, the offshore wind bubble will burst ,not because we oppose innovation, but because we support realism.

Energy systems must:

✅ Deliver power when we need it

✅ Be affordable to households and industry

✅ Strengthen national resilience

✅ Stand on economic merit

Offshore/onshore wind fails every one of those tests without public subsidy lifelines.

Nuclear passes.Gas passes.Future British SMRs pass.And industrial-scale storage?Still a fantasy — not a plan.

The green lobby knows the truth ,that’s why they panic when subsidies are challenged.

If offshore wind were truly competitive, it wouldn’t need:

Strike-price guarantees

Guaranteed grid access

Government-funded transmission Curtailment compensation

Favourable tax treatment

Special planning treatment

Consumer-funded balancing services

This isn’t a free market ,it’s a protected financial scheme.The minute you force it into real competition?

It disappears.Germany proved it.Denmark sees it.And soon the UK will face it too.

Britain needs energy sovereignty, not energy theatre.We cannot power a nation on hope, PR press releases and ideological engineering.

We need:

🔧 Nuclear🇬🇧 British SMRs

🔥 Secure domestic gas

🏭 Industrial power planning

🔋 Realistic storage where it works — not fantasy where it doesn’t

🏠 Localised micro-generation like Power Roll — not 50-mile transmission lines

That’s how you build a sovereign energy system, not a subsidy-dependent one.This isn’t anti-renewable.It’s pro-Britain.Pro-industry.Pro-common-sense.And above all -Pro-reality.

The subsidy age is ending.The offshore wind bubble is bursting.Britain is choosing energy security over energy illusions.

Shane Oxer — Campaigner for fairer and affordable energy