Sussex schoolchildren visit Rampion wind farm for work experience

Year 10 students from Chailey School, Seahaven Academy and Cardinal Newman in Hove visited Rampion’s Offshore Wind Farm last week.

Three of them, Niall MacMenamin and Leo Allen from Chailey and Willow Allen from Seahaven Academy, were invited to complete work experience with Rampion in Newhaven.

Their week included a trip out to the offshore wind farm.

The three were given the opportunity after expressing an interest in working in the industry.

Katie Scanlan, stakeholder and visitor centre manager for Rampion, said: “It’s fantastic to have local young people working with the team at the Rampion Operations and Maintenance Base, to support their future career aspirations and to see such enthusiasm for renewable energy.

Niall Macmenamin, Leo Allen and Willow Allen (left to right) (Image: Rampion)

“They’ve been a real asset to the team and we know everyone very much enjoyed going out to sea and visiting the turbines as well.”

The wind farm has taken on over a dozen apprentices since it was first commissioned – four of who still work on the project after completing their training.

Rampion started producing energy in 2017 and was fully operational in 2018. The wind farm produced over 1,500 gigawatt hours of energy in 2023.

A new, larger wind farm dubbed Rampion 2 is currently being planned and would expand on the current site with larger turbines.

The plans received some criticism from local campaigners who argued that the development would involve new cables cutting through the South Downs.

Brighton and Hove City Council said they should receive a “package of compensation” for the development as the city would receive “no proposed economic or other benefit” from the project.

Rampion responded saying the wind farm had proved to be “an attraction in the local area” and that the impact of building new cables would be “temporary during construction only, with the land successfully reinstated”.