Rampion is an offshore

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park 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 turbines covering an exten ...

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

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

coast in the UK. The wind farm has a capacity of 400 MW, although 700 MW was originally planned. The wind farm was commissioned in April 2018 and was the first offshore wind farm on the 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 and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...

and

Shoreham-by-Sea Shoreham-by-Sea (often shortened to Shoreham) is a coastal town and port in the Adur District, Adur district, in the county of West Sussex, England. In 2011 it had a population of 20,547. The town is bordered to its north by the South Downs, to ...

to the west, the city of

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority area, ceremonially in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administe ...

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. Pu ...

exercise. The name Rampion was voted the winning suggestion, submitted by Davison High School Pupil Megan McCullough, after the round-headed rampion (''Phyteuma orbiculare''), also known as the Pride of Sussex, the county flower of Sussex.

Planning and Construction

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 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, where it constructed two new buildings to house the administration and engineering functions of the wind farm. The site and associated buildings 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. 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. In 2020, Rampion exceeded its power generation targets by generating 1,600 GWh over the year, 15% more than the assumed annual generation of 1,400 GWh and resulting in an average power output of 183 MW.

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, expected to stand up to 325m above the highest tide and producing up to 1,200 megawatts of power. If plans are approved construction could start in 2027, and the site could be operational by 2030. In September 2023 the Planning Inspectorate accepted the application for examination. On 4 April 2025, the Rampion 2 Offshore Wind Farm was granted development consent by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.https://www.gov.uk/government/news/rampion-2-offshore-wind-farm-development-consent-decision-announced

References

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