BRIGHTON, England — I’ve seen wind farms on land, well in movies, but I’ve never seen them in person before, especially an offshore one. The Rampion offshore wind farm is visible from Brighton’s shore, and I was intrigued when I first saw it from the Brighton Palace Pier.
The idea to tour the wind farm was a spontaneous one. Cassie Jenkins, one of my study abroad classmates, threw the idea on the table and we decided to do it.
The tour boat is docked at Brighton Marina, so we got the pleasure of taking the Volk’s Electric Railway, the oldest electric railway in the world, from the pier to the Marina. The ride was short but lovely. My favorite part was hearing the train’s horn being blown.
After the short-lived train ride, we walked through the Marina filled with cinemas, boutiques and eateries overlooking the water, as well as the biggest car wash I have ever seen.
After a pleasant walk we were on the Marina’s dock. We were warned before purchasing our ticket that the water was rocky so we might get splashed during the ride. This made me hesitant because I wasn’t in the mood to get drenched, but I decided to do it anyway, because I don’t know when I’ll ever get to tour a farm filled with gigantic wind turbines again.
The only thing I knew about wind turbines before going on the tour is that they produce electricity, but the captain of the boat gave us a few pamphlets with the basic information we needed to know.
I always associate wind farms with positive things. I mean, who wouldn’t? Besides supplying electricity to more than 350,000 homes in Brighton, they also reduce carbon emission. However, they’re extremely expensive. The turbines’ energy generation reduces by half in 15 years, and they only last up to 25 years before they have to be replaced. To produce these wind turbines, we’re actually releasing more carbon by burning coals, processing and shipping steel, and rocks. These 1,300 ton, 140-metre tall (from foot to blade tip) wind turbines aren’t appearing from thin air. The blade alone weighs 12 tons, equal to two killer whales.
However, these things are truly magnificent up close. Luckily, it was a windy day, so the blades were going full force. Our boat got so close to a turbine that with every blade appearing and disappearing from our view, it made a Whoosh! noise. It was terrifying yet beautiful at the same time. I thought if I reached my hand out the boat, the blade would chop it off.
The stunning wind turbines made the choppy boat ride from shore worthwhile. When the tour guide told our group that we were likely to get splattered with water, my mind remembered one rainy day when a car rudely drove over a water puddle, creating a tsunami wave that drenched me from head to toe. On the boat ride, however, I just got splattered with a mist of ocean water every now and then which was quite pleasant, really. I thought of it as a free sea salt setting spray for my full face of makeup.
The farm is quite big with 116 standing wind turbines and an oil rig in the middle of the farm. I wondered if there was anyone monitoring the rig, because I didn’t see any boat docked at the bottom. If there was anyone there, that must be one lonely job.
The ride back was faster and shorter, but we did get to see the beautiful Brighton coastline. The sun shined brightly through the clouded sky for a split moment that highlighted the breathtaking coastline. I could see from our Airbnb in Hove in the west to the Marina on the east side of Brighton, which made me think of how close everything was to each other.
While sitting on the rocky boat with a sore bum, misty face and what felt like hypothermia creeping in my boney body. I reflected on the name of the farm and found it quite endearing. The “Rampion” wind farm is named after a wild Sussex flower. It’s a beautiful flower fitting for a beautiful farm, and it definitely blew me away.
The tour is 40 pounds, and it’s approximately two hours. Visit here to book a tour.
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