Eon will install the first foundation this week at its 400MW Rampion offshore wind farm in southern England despite bad weather hampering seabed enabling works.
Work to prepare the seabed for the 116 turbines began in September and the initial load of foundations arrived on site from the Netherlands last week onboard the jack-up MPI Discovery.
Installation of the first foundation will be in the northwest quadrant of the site. Construction work will be project managed from a temporary facility in Newhaven Port until the wind farm’s operations and maintenance base is completed in 2017.
The utility said the project remains on schedule.
Eon development manager Chris Tomlinson said: “It’s a really proud moment to finally be installing the first foundations.
“These foundations will be piled into the seabed and will act as a base for each of the 140m turbines, which we will start erecting in early 2017.
“I’m pleased that our highly skilled team have been able to overcome the poor weather conditions that we’ve faced over the last few weeks and continue with the construction of the wind farm as planned.
Image: jack-up MPI Discovery carried the foundations from the Netherlands (MPI)
