UK’s Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has granted a licence for E.ON Climate and Renewables UK Rampion Offshore Wind to build a temporary pontoon at Newhaven Port to support the construction of the 400MW Rampion offshore wind farm.
As part of the Rampion OWF development, proposed by E.ON Climate and Renewables UK Rampion Offshore Wind Limited, an onshore operations and maintenance facility at East Quay, Newhaven Port, has been granted planning consent by Lewes District Council.
To support the construction of the wind farm, located 13 kilometers from the Sussex coast, a temporary pontoon at East Quay is required to facilitate the use of crew transfer vessels throughout the construction period of the offshore wind farm.
E.ON applied for the licence to build the pontoon on 17 March, and the licence was granted by MMO on 24 March.
The installation of the pontoon is expected to commence by the end March 2016. It is anticipated that the works will be complete by July 2016. Once constructed, the temporary pontoon will be in position for 2 years, after which time the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) team is expected to either replace the temporary pontoon with a new permanent pontoon, or keep/modify the existing arrangement.
Rampion remains set to become the first offshore wind farm off the south coast of England. The project received the final investment decision in May 2015, started construction in September, and is expected to be fully operational in 2018.