Rampion is an offshore

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

developed by E.ON, now operated by RWE, off the

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

coast in the UK. The wind farm has a capacity of 400 MW (originally 700 MW was planned). The wind farm was commissioned in April 2018 and was the first offshore wind farm for the whole south coast of England.

Location

Located between from the shore, the wind farm is situated off the coast of the towns of

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Ho ...

and

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in West Sussex, England. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to its west by the Adur Valley and to its south by the River Adur and Shoreham Beach on t ...

to the west, the city of

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove () is a city and unitary authority in East Sussex, England. It consists primarily of the settlements of Brighton and Hove, alongside neighbouring villages. Often referred to synonymously as Brighton, the City of Brighton and H ...

in the centre and the towns of Newhaven and Seaford in the east. The wind farm lies in a zone that is an irregular elongated area, approximately in an east to west direction and approximately in the north to south direction, an area of .

Name

Initially known as Zone 6 off the Sussex coast, it was later named the "Southern Array" (Hastings). When the site of the wind farm was changed from near Hastings to off Brighton, E.ON held a competition with local schools to suggest a new name as a

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

exercise. The name ‘Rampion’ was voted the winning suggestion, submitted by Davison High School Pupil Megan McCullough, after the

round-headed rampion Phyteuma orbiculare, common name round-headed rampion or Pride of Sussex, is a herbaceous perennial plant of the genus '' Phyteuma'' belonging to the family Campanulaceae. Description ''Phyteuma orbiculare'' reaches on average of height. A dee ...

(''Phyteuma orbiculare''), also known as the Pride of Sussex, the county flower of Sussex.

Planning

E.ON's final plans use 116 turbines of approximately 3.45 MW capacity, each high to the tip of the blade, blade length is 55m, and radius is 12m which represents a 43% reduction in the size of the development after planning consent was granted. E.ON originally proposed using either 175 smaller turbines of 3–3.6 MW capacity, each above low tide sea level, or 100 larger turbines of 7 MW capacity, each above sea level. Development and construction costs were estimated at £2 billion. As the turbines are designed to last approximately 20–25 years, and since E.ON's lease of the site from the

Crown Estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priv ...

is for 50 years, the company would eventually need to replace the turbines. After an 18 month evaluation process between Newhaven and Shoreham ports, E.ON chose Newhaven as the base for its Operations and Maintenance facility. The company took a lease on a site at the

Port of Newhaven The Port of Newhaven is a port and associated docks complex located within Newhaven, East Sussex, England, situated at the mouth of the River Ouse. International ferries run to the French port of Dieppe, Seine-Maritime, a distance of . Although ...

, where they constructed two new buildings to house the administration and engineering functions of the wind farm. The site and associated buildings will act as the combined servicing point for the wind farm. The project was approved by the Government in July 2014. In November 2014, E.ON announced that it had reduced the proposed capacity of the project by approximately 40%. Onshore construction work began in June 2015 with construction of a new electricity substation adjacent to the existing National Grid Bolney 400/132kV substation near

Twineham Twineham is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is located eight kilometres (5 miles) to the west of Burgess Hill. The civil parish covers an area of In the 2001 census 271 people lived in 100 h ...

. Off shore the 116 monopile foundations were piled into the sea bed and on completion of this the first wind turbine was lifted into place in March 2017. Coincident with this was the ongoing work to backfill the cable duct trenches off Lancing beach initially due to be completed in Spring 2017. Installation of the remainder of the 150kV cable through to Bolney and the burying in the sea bed of the 33kV inter array cables was also completed during this time following the installation of a 2,000 tonne offshore 33/150kV substation that was completed in April 2017. An excavator was stranded and disabled after completing cable trench backfilling work in April 2017; it was removed in June 2017. Electricity production commenced during November 2017. Construction of the wind farm was completed in 2018 at a cost of £1.3 billion.

Rampion 2

Rampion 2 is a proposed second wind farm to the immediate south west of the current Rampion installation. Plans include larger wind turbines compared with the first Rampion wind farm, producing up to 1,200 megawatts of power. If plans are approved construction could start in 2026.

References

External links