If the proposed Rampion 2 inshore project goes ahead, the impact spreads wide. Only last year, David Attenborough explicitly expressed concern that ‘dredging to install cable to offshore wind farms changes the seabed and its wildlife forever’ [Ref5]. This forbidding fence of massive turbines is also likely to cause the coastal economy in West Sussex to go further into decline. Those who come here for the sea views and invest in the area will increasingly shun this part of the Sussex bay – choosing to go to more attractive locations instead. Unless the wind farm were moved more than 13 miles further offshore, it would have a significant impact on key viewpoints in the South Downs National Park. When the SDNP was designated, great weight was given by the Planning Inspector to the quality of the seascape and the extensive and uninterrupted views from the South Downs out to sea.

The Rampion 2 developers are not considering going further offshore, however, and claim they cannot do this due to shipping only a few miles further out. This is effectively an admission that the West Sussex bay is not a suitable site.

Elsewhere – such as the Dorset Navitus Bay wind farm proposed in 2015 – the Planning Inspectorate has turned down applications due to visual impact on designated sites and potential harm to the local economy. The visual footprint of Navitus Bay was only slightly larger than that of the current Rampion 1 – with the latter itself deemed to be only just acceptable for visual impact on the SDNP when consented in July 2014. But Rampion 2 would be very much taller and larger and would span over 100 degrees of the horizon from several viewpoints. The harm of Rampion 2 would, therefore, be very much more significant than Rampion 1 and, like the Navitus Bay project, should be rejected.

There is a greener way forward. The Crown Estate has just announced (Round 4 Tender stage 2) a new tender opportunity for leasing other wind farms in the North Sea. There remains over 145 times the area that Rampion 2 would require – beyond what is needed to meet the entire UK 2050 net-zero target with no visual harm.

This area is completely different from the Sussex Bay. Wind farms can be 100 miles offshore on Dogger Bank, for example, and in shallow water. They can connect to the new National Grid offshore network transmission that the government has confirmed in the December 2020 Energy White Paper: Powering our Net-Zero Future. This will provide a much more stable and secure link, obviate any extra direct connection to shore, will be more reliable and will not only power the UK but also allow us to export to the EU in times of strong winds when we have too much wind capacity – instead of paying the operators to switch off.

This region of Dogger Bank has the additional benefit that the winds are stronger and more constant than close inshore in the Sussex bay.

RWE states that the proposed 1,200 MW wind farm, Rampion 2, would power 1 million homes (based on an average annual domestic household electricity consumption of 3,618 kWh). This calculation shows that Rampion 2 is expected to have a similar capacity factor (of 34%) to Rampion 1. There are three wind farms currently being built in Dogger Bank each equivalent in size to Rampion 2 at 1,200MW. Each one will power 2 Million Homes giving them a capacity factor of 69%. This is twice the efficiency of a wind farm in the Sussex bay and demonstrates that Dogger bank would be a much better place to build new wind farm than the Sussex bay.

This means that a wind farm in Dogger Bank would generate twice as much energy than one of the same capacity in the Sussex bay. This is important for two reasons: 1) the electricity from Dogger Bank would be significantly cheaper (about half of the cost) and 2) the CO2 impact would be lower for two reasons: a) when the wind is not blowing the electricity needs to be supplied by gas power stations and this backup generates CO2 emissions. The backup for Rampion 2 would generate 3.3Million Tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. The same size wind farm in Dogger bank would generate less than half as much at 1.6Million Tonnes and, b) The manufacture and installation of wind farms creates significant CO2 emissions – but this is balanced by the renewable energy generated making them net negative in emissions once they have been operating for some time. Having double the energy output makes wind farms in Dogger Bank help us reach net zero much more quickly – a much greener alternative