The Rampion wind farm foundations have been completed off the coast of Brighton and Hove, with energy company Eon describing it as a milestone.
The company said: “Construction at Rampion has reached a significant milestone this week as installation of the 116 turbine foundations has been completed on schedule.
“Work to install the first foundations began in early February and was put on hold, as planned, during the black bream spawning season between mid-April and July.
“Since then two jack-up vessels – the MPI Discovery and Pacific Orca – have worked tirelessly to install the foundations using a 1,000-tonne crane to lift each foundation upright before lowering and piling it into the seabed with a hydraulic hammer.
“The yellow transition pieces have also been fitted on to the foundations and sit approximately 20 metres above sea level ready to hold the turbines.
“Over the next few months the team will make the final preparations for the turbine installation, due to commence in spring and continue throughout 2017.
“Work will also continue to progress on the offshore cabling and substation, a vital infrastructure which will eventually bring the power generated by the turbines ashore.”
The £2 billion wind farm, which is about eight miles south of Brighton and Hove, is expected to generate enough electricity to power about 350,000 homes.
Eon’s development and stakeholder manager for the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm, Chris Tomlinson, said: “We’re pleased and proud to have reached this project milestone and we appreciate the patience of local residents while these major works have taken place.
“Despite the adverse weather at the start of the year, the good autumnal weather conditions have enabled us to finish this phase of work ahead of winter, which is testament to the commitment of the construction team.
“We now look forward to starting the turbine installations in the spring, which will see the wind farm really begin to take shape as the 116 turbines are gradually installed throughout next year.”
The wind farm is expected to create about 250 to 300 jobs overall during the construction phase with about 65 permanent jobs as it becomes operational in 2018.
The construction of Rampion is quite a site from Racecourse Hill on a crisp autumn day. The engineering feat being carried out of our shore is quite incredible and one which has had very little impact despite its vast scale.
I am looking forward to the turbines being erected and looking out to the red lights of the turbines at night.
ugly looking things destroying the sea and views and the many sea birds who will die in the turbines…I hope nature destroys these eyesores
Agreed. Just saw them for the first time last Sunday, the 20th. The idea that people might want to look out to see or reflect on a sunset clearly defeats these capitalitists who are only interested in making money. It should never have been constructed. It has totally put me off wanting to visit Brighton.
What a very small minded and selfish view of the world. Yet we have paintings of windmills by turner in museums to look at as things of beauty. Surely renewable energy will help nature. … maybe stop reading the daily mail as gospel …
The same sea birds that live on my roof and are fed bread by my next door neighbors? Glad to see this coming online hopefully it will safe guard the environment for my generation unlike dirty coal and gas that will not save the sea or views… if anything it will add to the view
I visited the south coast last week at the anniversary of my mother’s death. She’d lived in Telscombe Cliffs and loved the views out to see and the sunsets. I was horrified to see that the view is now dissipated by these ugly dots before the horizon that are unescaple. Whilst human beings are destroying areas of natural beauty everywhere, it is beyond belief that mechanics has to take over – when underwater sea turbines Itidal power) could have achieved more energy and for longer parts of the year. Wind power cannot be stored so it does not provide electricity to homes, it gets sold to the national grid. That’s how it works. And for most of the year, is pretty much useless. Not useless however is the destruction in aesthetics and beauty. Those who fail to recognise this are clearly philistines.
Wind power can and is stored into hydrogen and battery technology and It is intermittent much like the tidal electricity you allude to…. what is doesn’t have is a subsidy to remain on standby like coal or nuclear power stations. With a transition into a clean energy mix and transportation mix the static electric car battery’s can stabllbalise the peak electricity usage. Constable painted windmills as a thing of beauty… stop believing the naysayers and daily mail blah blah blah
I for one would rather have offshore wind farms than pollution from the burning of fossil fuels to supply energy to our homes. Maybe when the supply of this fuel runs out the whingers will opt out of having their electricity supplied from wind farms and live without power, thus giving the rest of us more electricity to share.