Offshore Construction Start

Offshore construction on the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm formally commenced in February 2016, marked by the installation of the first foundation at the project site by the jack-up vessel MPI Discovery. This milestone represented the transition from preparatory and onshore works into full offshore construction, following earlier development and licensing steps such as the award of Development Consent in July 2014 and the start of onshore construction in September 2015 for the 27‑kilometre cable route. The official Rampion project timeline identifies this point explicitly as the start of offshore construction, and Tethys’ project overview corroborates February 2016 as the offshore construction start date. Prior to this, offshore activity had already begun in the form of seabed preparation works in autumn 2015 to ready the site for foundation installation, as reported in E.ON’s project communications. However, these works are framed as preparatory, with the first actual foundation installation in early 2016 signifying the beginning of the main offshore build campaign. From this foundation start, construction progressed through completion of all 116 foundations by November 2016, installation of the offshore substation in April 2017, and subsequent turbine installation and commissioning activities. The February 2016 offshore construction start therefore served as the key inflection point moving Rampion from development into large‑scale marine construction, ultimately enabling first power in November 2017 and full operational status in 2018.