💥 Shell Walks Away from 3GW ScotWind Deal — And the Truth Is Finally Out: Renewables Have No Value Without Subsidies

Floating wind’s “great hope” just collapsed and it wasn’t activists, local communities, or politicians who killed it. It was the market.When Shell can’t even give away a supposedly “world-class” 3GW ScotWind lease, the signal to the energy world is deafening:👉 The renewables gold rush is over.👉 The subsidies have run dry.👉 And without taxpayer money, these projects aren’t worth a penny.For years, governments, industry lobbyists, and Net Zero evangelists insisted that offshore wind — especially floating wind — was the future. Scotland was told it would become “the Saudi Arabia of wind.”Well, Saudis don’t walk away from oil fields because nobody wants them.Shell just walked away from wind.

🔥 The Market Has Spoken: Floating Wind Isn’t Viable

Shell tried to sell its 3GW floating wind option.No takers.Not from green investment funds.Not from European utilities.Not from offshore wind developers.Not from global asset managers.Not from anyone.When a project with:guaranteed political backing“world-leading” branding priority grid access and a government desperate for success still can’t find a buyer, that tells you everything.This isn’t a blip.This is structural failure.

⚡ Why Nobody Wants Floating Wind Anymore

1) The economics don’t work

Costs have soared. Turbines are too big, maintenance too complex, vessels too expensive, supply chains too fragile. Without subsidies, the numbers fall apart.

2) CfDs no longer cover the cost of building them

The UK government wants developers to bid at lower and lower prices to make Net Zero look cheap. Developers now refuse to sign CfDs because they’d lose money on every megawatt.

3) The grid can’t handle the power

ScotWind’s electricity would need multi-billion-pound transmission upgrades none of which exist, and none of which will be ready this decade.4) The industry’s “expansion at all costs” era is overEven Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, Ørsted and RWE are downsizing or pulling out of markets. Floating wind was supposed to be the next boom. Instead, it’s the first casualty.

🌪 The Political Car Crash: Scotland’s Offshore Wind Dream Hits Reality

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney pinned the country’s future on ScotWind.Jobs, investment, energy security, carbon targets everything was built on the assumption that offshore wind would deliver.Now one of the world’s biggest energy companies has quietly slipped out the back door And the most important part?They couldn’t find anyone willing to replace them.

💣 The Brutal Truth: Renewables Only Survive on Subsidies

This is the conclusion nobody in government wants the public to hear: Without subsidies, renewables have no market value.No contracts for difference.No guaranteed power prices.No taxpayer funding.No artificially inflated carbon markets.No planning fast-tracks.Take those away and the whole industry collapses.This week’s Shell–ScotWind exit proves it.

📉 The Death of the “Saudi Arabia of Wind” Myth

Thousands of pages of promotional documents, glossy video campaigns, ministerial speeches and industry forecasts promised that Scotland would become a global powerhouse.But real power comes from:reliability affordability strategic independence and technologies that can run without taxpayer life support Floating wind delivers none of those.What it delivers is subsidy dependence.And now the subsidies aren’t enough or aren’t guaranteed, the investors are vanishing.

🚨 Scotland Deserves Better And So Does Britain

Energy policy must be based on what works, not on what looks good in a manifesto or at a climate conference.Britain needs:firm, reliable powergrid-first planninginvestment in SMRs and modern gasrooftop solar film like Power Rolland an end to fantasy targets and subsidy inflationScotWind collapsing is not a failure of Shell.It is a failure of policy.

📝 Final Thought

For years, anyone questioning offshore wind economics was labelled anti-green, anti-progress, anti-science.But today, the judgement didn’t come from critics.It came from the market.Renewables were sold as a revolution.Instead, they turned out to be a Ponzi scheme held up only by taxpayer money and now the money’s running out.Shell didn’t kill ScotWind. The maths did.

✍️ Shane Oxer Campaigner for fairer and affordable energy