The Rampion offshore wind farm was considered a pioneering project right from the start: the first offshore wind farm off the south coast of England has an installed capacity of 400 megawatts and generates almost 1,400 gigawatt hours of electricity annually. This corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of almost 350,000 British households or about half the households in Sussex. The wind farm is located in the English Channel not far from the Sussex coast and stretches from East Worthing in the west to Brighton in the east. With an area of 72 square kilometres, it is only slightly larger than the island of Guernsey. The Rampion offshore wind farm is fully operational and not only brought enormous regional contracts during the construction phase, but also around 60 permanent full-time jobs. The Rampion offshore wind farm is operated and maintained from a specially built base in the port of Newhaven and acted as a catalyst for the regeneration of the port area right from the start of its construction.

Technical data, size and capacity of the wind farm

Rampion comprises 116 turbines, each with an output of 3.45 megawatts. The turbine hub houses the wind turbine rotor and is 80 meters above sea level. The rotor diameter is 112 meters and each of the three blades is 55 meters long. The wind turbines start generating electricity at a wind speed of about 3 metres per second (m/s) or about 7 miles per hour and generate maximum rated power at 12 m/s (up to full capacity). They switch off when the wind speed reaches 25.5 m/s or about 50 miles per hour to avoid damage from storm winds. The turbines stand on foundations, each consisting of a single steel pylon and a bright-yellow transition piece and are designed to complement each other both technically and functionally. They are installed in 12 strings of 9 to 10 turbines each, connected by array cables that link up to form a single offshore substation. The closest wind turbine to the shore is 13 km (8 miles) and the furthest 20 km (12.5 miles) away.

The electricity generated in the Rampion offshore wind farm is transported to the transformer substation at 33 kilovolts via a total of 140 kilometres of array cables under the seabed. The offshore substation enables operators to reduce energy losses by converting electricity from 33 kV to 150 kV before it is exported ashore. The upper and cable deck of the switchgear, consisting of the electrical and auxiliary equipment as well as the control systems, weighs a total of around 2000 tonnes. They are mounted on a four-legged jacket foundation attached to the seabed and weighing around 900 tonnes. The electricity is transmitted from the transformer substation via two 16-kilometer-long export cables, going ashore on the beach near Brooklands Pleasure Park, Lancing.