Shell has announced the cancellation of Scottish offshore wind projects, withdrawing from two major developments off the country’s coast, as reported by Bloomberg.
The move comes days after the company announced its exit from the Atlantic Shores offshore wind project in the US.
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Previously, Shell had partnered with Iberdrola’s ScottishPower Renewables to develop the CampionWind and MarramWind offshore wind farms.
The MarramWind project was a 50/50 joint venture while Shell was the sole owner of CampionWind.
However, Shell sold its 50% stake in MarramWind to ScottishPower Renewables, which will now independently advance the proposed floating offshore wind farm.
The MarramWind project is expected to deliver up to 3GW of renewable energy, powering more than 3.5 million homes.
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By GlobalDataAfter the stake swap, Shell became the sole owner of CampionWind but it has since returned the lease for this project to Crown Estate Scotland (CES).
Shell’s email statement was quoted by the news agency as saying: “Shell believes that returning the CampionWind lease to CES will offer the best opportunity for any potential future the site may have. Substantial pre-investment work has already been undertaken to de-risk the site, which Shell hopes will support any possible future.”
The company’s decision reflects a broader strategic shift led by its CEO Wael Sawan, who has scaled back previous targets to become a major developer of offshore wind farms.
Shell secured the leases for the Scottish sites in a major auction in 2022.
Since then, the costs of offshore wind projects, especially those involving floating wind technology, have reportedly increased significantly.
This cost escalation has impacted the viability of both the CampionWind and MarramWind projects.
With Shell’s exit, ScottishPower Renewables will continue to develop the larger MarramWind site off Scotland’s north-east coast.
According to the developer, MarramWind could become one of the world’s first commercial-scale floating wind farms.
In March, Shell announced the discontinuation of its solar and onshore wind power generation projects in Brazil.
