Competition to come up with name for south coast off-shore wind turbine

The wind-farm is situated off-shore near Newhaven.

Katie Scanlan, Visitor Centre Manager, said: “We’re looking for creative ideas for a name – it could be named after a famous person in Sussex, or someone you know who has done something fantastic to protect the environment, or anything you think might be relevant.”

Names should be submitted to the Rampion Visitor Centre on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter pages @rampionvc or email [email protected] and the names selected by the Visitor Centre team will go to public vote. The winning name will be displayed on the turbine and the person who suggested it will receive a goodie bag.

The Rampion Offshore Wind Farm was named by school girls at Davison High School who won a competition in 2010 calling it after Rampion, the county flower of Sussex.

The Rampion Visitor Centre was opened in September, bringing to life the story of climate change, renewable energy and our planet’s future, as well as covering the planning and construction of the offshore wind farm.

While lockdown has restricted access to the attraction, the Visitor Centre team has been busy offering virtual education support to schools, including presenting on wind energy at last week’s national Youth Climate Summit.

Sussex schools are invited to contact the team to book virtual lessons via video call including topics such as: how does a wind farm work? why is wind energy important? and how do you build a wind farm? These are aimed at secondary schools and colleges or sixth forms for science, geography and environmental science subjects.

The Rampion Visitor Centre also offers careers interviews, where young people have the opportunity to virtually meet the Rampion Wind Farm team and find out about the different jobs that people do in wind energy. To support this activity, short video clips of people delivering a range of jobs on the wind farm, including operations, maintenance and engineering support, will launch on social media channels.

The visitor centre team are also holding weekly wind-themed craft activities for families to try out over lockdown and offering virtual tours of the Visitor Centre, talks and Questions and Answer sessions for community groups.

Continued Katie Scanlan: “Here at Rampion Visitor Centre, our vision is a world powered by clean, renewable and sustainable energy. We are urging people to think about their own personal energy consumption and pledge one way in which they could reduce this, every day. For example, don’t waste anything, treasure the items you own, look after them and buy less or second-hand.”

Contact [email protected] or visit rampionoffshore.com to find out more or book a session.

The Visitor Centre is part of the £4million Rampion Community Fund, voluntarily created for the Sussex community.

See also: Remembering the sad loss of a Sussex lifeboat crew