Look out to sea from Worthing on a clear day and they are impossible to miss.

One hundred and sixteen wind turbines stretch across the horizon, occupying around 72 square kilometres of the English Channel between East Worthing and Brighton.

They are Rampion Offshore Wind Farm.

They have been there long enough now that, for many of us, they have simply become part of the Sussex coastline.

But have you ever stopped to ask a very simple question?

What does Worthing actually get from them?

Not how much electricity Rampion generates.

Not how many homes it could theoretically power.

But who owns it, who buys the electricity, where the money goes, and what the people living beneath that altered horizon actually receive in return.

Because once you start following those questions, the story becomes considerably more interesting.

Remember what we were told?

Long before the first turbine appeared on the horizon, Rampion was marketed very deliberately as a Sussex project.

Even its name came from Sussex.

In 2011, local schoolchildren were invited to help name the proposed wind farm. More than 2,500 votes were cast, and "Rampion", the county flower of Sussex, also known as the Pride of Sussex, was chosen.

The first project newsletter then told residents that the proposed wind farm could generate enough renewable electricity to power around 430,000 homes every year.

And it immediately translated that figure for us:

Almost two-thirds of all homes in East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton & Hove.

That is quite a powerful message.

This enormous development would sit off our coastline.

It was named after our county flower.

And its output was explained in terms of our homes.

The project eventually became smaller than originally proposed. Today's Rampion has 116 turbines, an installed capacity of 400MW and expected annual generation of roughly 1,400GWh.

Rampion now describes that as enough electricity to supply the equivalent of almost 350,000 UK homes, around half the homes in Sussex.

There is, however, one extremely important word in that sentence.

Equivalent.

Rampion does not actually power half of Sussex

There is no dedicated Rampion electricity supply running into Worthing.

There isn't a cable somewhere beneath the pavement splitting clean Sussex wind power between local homes.

Your electricity bill isn't cheaper because you can see the turbines from the beach.

And there is no arrangement whereby 350,000 Sussex households are connected specifically to Rampion.

The electricity goes into Britain's national electricity system.

And this is not something uncovered from a secret document.

It was actually there in E.ON's original 2011 consultation material.

The company explained that Rampion would produce so much electricity that its power needed to flow directly into the 400kV National Grid transmission system at Bolney.

The same publication that compared Rampion's generation with 430,000 homes also clearly explained that once the electricity reached the onshore substation, "it will be fed into the grid."

So let's keep the facts absolutely straight.

Were Sussex residents explicitly promised that Rampion would directly supply their houses?

No.

Were we promised a special local electricity tariff?

No.

Were we promised ownership of the wind farm?

No.

But was the project repeatedly presented to the public through the language of Sussex homes, Sussex identity and Sussex benefit?

Absolutely.

And that distinction matters.

So who actually buys the electricity?

This is perhaps the most interesting part of the entire story.

Rampion Offshore Wind Limited's own strategic report gives an unusually straightforward answer.

It says:

"The company sells all of its output to a single customer, E.ON UK plc"

under a Power Purchase Agreement.

Read that again.

All of its output.

Commercially, the electricity produced by Rampion is sold to E.ON UK.

That doesn't mean E.ON takes individual electrons from the turbines, puts them into a separate cable and sends them specifically to E.ON customers. Electricity on an interconnected grid doesn't work like that.

Physically, Rampion contributes electricity to the wider British electricity system.

Commercially, however, Rampion's own statutory disclosure identifies one customer for its output: E.ON UK plc.

That is rather different from the mental picture created by the phrase:

"Enough electricity for half the homes in Sussex."

Who owns our enormous offshore neighbour?

Not Worthing.

Not West Sussex.

Not Brighton & Hove.

Not local residents.

And not the British public.

Rampion Offshore Wind Limited is privately owned.

Its current shareholders are:

  • RWE Renewables UK Limited, 50.1%
  • Equitix, 25%
  • Enbridge, 24.9%

RWE therefore holds the controlling interest and operates the wind farm on behalf of the owners.

Enbridge is a major Canadian energy infrastructure company.

Equitix is an infrastructure investment business.

RWE is one of Europe's largest energy companies.

There is nothing inherently improper about any of that. Rampion is a commercial energy project and private investors funded a substantial part of its construction.

But it is important to understand what Rampion actually is.

It isn't a Sussex community wind farm.

It is a major privately owned electricity-generating asset located off Sussex.

And there is a lot of money involved

Rampion cost somewhere in the region of £1 billion to £1.2 billion to develop and construct.

And today it is a substantial business.

RWE's 2025 annual report provides an unusually useful window into Rampion's finances.

For Rampion Offshore Wind Limited, RWE reported €363 million in revenue during 2025.

It also reported €87 million in dividends paid to Rampion's non-controlling interests during that single year.

Those non-controlling interests represent the 49.9% of the business that RWE doesn't own.

In other words, €87 million was distributed in one year to the minority ownership interests alone.

That figure does not represent RWE's own economic interest in the project.

And this is where the conversation becomes particularly interesting.

Because there is another number.

£3.1 million.

£3.1 million for the community

Rampion established the Rampion Community Benefit Fund in 2017.

It is worth £3.1 million over a ten-year period and is administered by Sussex Community Foundation.

According to the foundation, more than £2.1 million has so far been awarded to 237 community projects.

The money has supported genuinely worthwhile work, including energy-efficiency schemes, environmental projects, community buildings, charities and organisations tackling fuel poverty.

That is a real benefit.

And it would be wrong to pretend otherwise.

Rampion has put money into our communities.

But the scale is worth contemplating.

Community Benefit Fund: £3.1 million over ten years.

Dividends to Rampion's minority shareholders: €87 million during 2025 alone.

Those aren't directly comparable accounting figures. One is a voluntary community programme and the other is a return to investors. They exist for completely different reasons.

But they do illustrate the extraordinary difference in scale between the economic value generated by the asset and the direct fund established for the communities living beside it.

And perhaps that is where the real debate should begin.

What about local jobs?

There are local jobs.

Around 60 full-time permanent roles are associated with Rampion's operations and maintenance facility, alongside opportunities created through supporting contracts and other local expenditure.

But there is another detail Worthing residents may find interesting.

Those 60 jobs aren't based in Worthing.

The wind farm is operated from a purpose-built facility at Newhaven Port.

That is where the control room is.

That is where the technicians and engineers are based.

That is where crew transfer vessels leave for the turbines.

Newhaven has therefore enjoyed a particularly tangible economic benefit from Rampion.

Worthing's relationship with Rampion is rather different.

We get the view.

And the cable.

Yes, the electricity actually comes ashore at Worthing

The offshore export cables reach the Sussex coast around East Worthing before continuing underground inland.

The route eventually reaches the high-voltage transmission network around Bolney.

The original project documentation describes an underground cable beginning from the Worthing coast and travelling inland towards the grid connection.

So this is not simply a wind farm vaguely somewhere in the English Channel.

Worthing is physically part of the project's infrastructure.

The turbines are off our coast.

The cables come ashore here.

And then the electricity travels onwards into the national system.

There's another twist: Rampion doesn't even own the transmission system anymore

You might reasonably assume the company owning the turbines also owns the equipment transporting their electricity to shore.

It doesn't.

In 2021 Rampion Offshore Wind Limited sold its transmission assets under Britain's Offshore Transmission Owner system.

The sale included the offshore substation, offshore export cables, onshore export cable and the Twineham substation.

Those assets are now operated by TC Rampion OFTO Limited.

Ofgem values Rampion's transmission assets at approximately £279.5 million.

So Rampion is actually a collection of commercial relationships.

One set of investors owns the generating business.

Another company owns and operates much of the transmission infrastructure.

E.ON buys the generation under a Power Purchase Agreement.

And the electricity enters the wider British grid.

Once you understand that structure, the phrase "our wind farm" starts to mean something quite different.

So were we lied to?

This is where we need to resist the temptation to turn a good story into an inaccurate one.

We have looked at the early material.

The evidence does not show E.ON promising Sussex residents that the wind farm would exclusively supply their homes.

In fact, the 2011 documentation explicitly said electricity would enter the National Grid at Bolney.

So calling that particular claim a lie would not be fair.

But we can ask something subtler.

Did the way Rampion was presented encourage people to associate the project's benefits much more directly with Sussex than the commercial reality justified?

That's a much more interesting question.

Because "a privately owned generating company supplying electricity into the national market under a commercial offtake agreement" isn't quite as emotionally compelling as:

"Enough clean energy for nearly half the homes in Sussex."

The second statement isn't false.

But it doesn't mean what many people might naturally assume it means.

And to be clear: this isn't an argument against wind power

It is possible to ask hard questions about Rampion without pretending renewable electricity is worthless.

Rampion produces a huge quantity of low-carbon electricity.

It provides skilled jobs.

It supports local organisations.

Its community fund has financed worthwhile projects.

Its construction and operation have created contracts for local businesses.

And Britain needs electricity.

The question Worthing should be discussing isn't whether electricity generation is bad.

It's something much simpler:

If we host nationally important infrastructure on this scale, should the local community receive more of its economic benefit?

Could residents living in host communities receive discounted electricity?

Could councils receive a proportion of project revenue?

Could there be local ownership?

Could the community fund be tied to generation or profits rather than being a fixed pot?

Could infrastructure of national importance produce a permanent local dividend?

Those are policy choices.

And right now, they largely don't exist for Rampion.

Imagine if Worthing received even a tiny percentage

This is where the numbers make the question difficult to ignore.

Rampion's 2025 revenue, according to majority owner RWE, was €363 million.

Imagine if just a small fraction of the economic value generated each year were permanently attached to the communities hosting the infrastructure.

Not as a one-off grant.

Not as a sponsorship.

But as an ongoing local benefit.

It could fund community facilities.

Help households struggling with energy costs.

Support local environmental projects.

Invest in Worthing's seafront.

Fund youth services.

Support local businesses.

Or reduce pressure on council finances.

Whether that would be the right policy is something residents can disagree about.

But surely it is worth discussing.

Because Rampion 2 is coming

And this isn't merely a debate about something that happened fifteen years ago.

In April 2025, the Government granted development consent for Rampion 2.

The extension can include up to 90 additional offshore turbines with a maximum generating capacity of 1,200MW, three times the installed capacity of the original Rampion project.

The Government says it could generate electricity equivalent to around one million homes.

Importantly, even the Government's own announcement explicitly explains what that language means:

"It is not possible to continuously power a home through intermittent renewables."

The capacity instead works alongside the wider electricity system supplying homes and businesses.

That clarification is worth remembering.

Because we are about to have this conversation all over again.

More turbines.

More generating capacity.

More infrastructure.

More electricity.

And considerably more economic value.

So perhaps, before Rampion 2 becomes another permanent feature of our horizon, Sussex should ask a question that wasn't asked loudly enough the first time.

If the wind farm is here, shouldn't more of the benefit be here too?

Rampion isn't some sinister conspiracy.

It isn't secretly stealing electricity that belonged to Worthing.

And the claim that it generates enough power to equal the consumption of hundreds of thousands of homes isn't fabricated.

But neither is Rampion quite the simple local success story that phrase can suggest.

The wind farm is privately owned.

Its output is commercially sold to E.ON.

Its electricity enters the national electricity network.

Its transmission infrastructure has separate private ownership.

Its investors receive substantial financial returns.

Meanwhile, Sussex receives jobs, local contracts and a £3.1 million community fund. Those are valuable contributions, certainly, but relatively modest when viewed alongside the scale of the asset itself.

So perhaps the argument shouldn't be about whether Rampion is good or bad.

Perhaps it should be this:

When communities host enormous pieces of Britain's energy infrastructure, what is a fair share of the benefit?

Because right now, if you stand on Worthing beach and look out at 116 turbines generating hundreds of millions of pounds worth of electricity from the wind off our coastline, you might reasonably wonder:

Are we getting a fair deal?

That's a question worth having a proper conversation about.