Plans to extend wind farm sub -station

A local consultation has been opened by the Rampion 2 Offshore Wind Farm team about proposals for a ‘small extension’ to the existing National Grid Bolney substation close to Wineham village.

The announcement said the extension is required to connect the power from Rampion 2 windfarm into the National Grid, so it can be used by homes and businesses.

It said the Bolney substation needs to be extended by up to 0.6ha or 1.5 acres, which represents a six per cent i n crease to the existing National Grid site area.

Chris Tomlinson, development and stakeholder manager, Rampion 2, RWE, said: “We welcome feedback from people living and working close to the Bolney substation site and all feedback received will be considered alongside the feedback already received during previous consultations, helping us form our final proposals, which we will submit in our consent application in summer 2023.”

The announcement said that the Rampion 2 proposed offshore windfarm could generate up to 1,200 megawatts, which is enough to power more than one million homes.

It said Rampion and Rampion 2 combined would be able to power all of the homes in Sussex, twice over.

After the consultation period, which runs until May 30, the development consent order (DCO) application for the wind farm is planned to be submitted in summer 2023. This will be followed by a period of examination and, if the project gets the go-ahead, construction is should start around 2026/27. The aim is for the wind to be farm fully operational before the end of the decade.