Rampion wind farm: five years of green energy

The wind farm, off the Worthing coast, creates approximately 1,400 gigawatt hours of power every year – enough to power almost 350,000 homes, or half the homes in Sussex – with clean, green energy.

Rampion started generating energy in November, 2017, and all turbines were fully commissioned and generating energy five months later.

It has recently recruited two more apprentices, who will be trained as technicians to help maintain the turbines.

Both in their early twenties, Josh Cheetham, from Brighton and Charlie Franklin-Martyn, born in Worthing and brought up in Portslade, won their apprenticeships against stiff competition.

Rampion general manager Daniel Allen-Baines said: “We are delighted to welcome Charlie and Josh to our team.

"They both excelled during a very competitive application process, and we are excited to be part of their career development.

“This takes our total apprentices to ten, eight already fully trained technicians working full-time on the Rampion turbines as part of our 65-strong Newhaven based team who work daily to operate the wind farm.”

“Rampion benefits the local community not only by allowing us to play our part in tackling the climate crisis and secure energy supplies, but in providing jobs and support for local people.”

A £3.1million Rampion Fund managed by Sussex Community Foundation has already supported 114 community projects benefiting almost a million people across Sussex – see www.sussexgiving.org.uk for more information.

The planning process is ongoing for Rampion 2, an extension project which could generate up to 1200MW, enough to power over one million homes in the UK and reduce carbon emissions by around 1.8 million tonnes per year. The final application will be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate next year. Should the project achieve consent, construction could start around 2026, with the wind farm fully operational before the end of the decade, helping meet the Government targets to quadruple offshore wind capacity by 2030.

Applications for the 2023 apprenticeship programme will be open again in February 2023, to coincide with National Apprenticeship Week. More details can be found on Rampion’s website.