County representatives sail off shore to see wind farm

350 guests representing Newhaven Port, East Sussex County Council, Lewes District Council, Lewes CPRE, Newhaven Town Council, RNLI, Sussex Community Foundation, Telscombe Town Council and the Rampion Operations and Maintenance Base. The group boarded a ferry at Newhaven for the trip out to the wind farm.

Chris Tomlinson, development and stakeholder manager for the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, said: “We are now fast approaching the completion of the Rampion project, the south coast’s first offshore wind farm, which gives us the chance to look back at the last eight years of development and construction and thank all those people who helped make it happen.

“Due to popular demand and before winter is upon us, we wanted to offer as many of the community representatives and local organisations who contributed to this mighty project, the opportunity to visit the site and see just how impressive it really is.

“We’re delighted that so many people could join us to view the wind farm which will power the equivalent of half the homes in Sussex every year, for the next 25 years.”

Liaison with the Sussex community began in 2010 when students from Davison High School for Girls in Worthing won a competition to name the wind farm after the county flower of Sussex, which grows locally on the South Downs.

A visitor centre is due to open on Brighton seafront next year when Rampion will begin to engage with schools in Sussex to give students the opportunity to visit the centre to support their studies.

The 400MW Rampion project is the first offshore wind farm off the UK’s south coast. The site is due to be

completed by the end of 2018 and final activities will continue over the next few months.

The site is owned by E.ON, UK Green Investment Rampion Ltd and Enbridge and will provide enough electricity to supply almost 350,000 homes a year, equivalent to around half the homes in Sussex.

In addition the wind farm will reduce CO2 emissions by up to 600,000 tonnes a year.

The cmpany have set up a community foundation gifting grants of between £1,000 to £50,000 to worthy causes in the Sussex community.

The Fund is open to charities, community groups and not-for-profit organisations, operating within the designated area. https://sussexgiving.org.uk/give-to-your-community/our-funds/named-funds/rampion-fund/