Representation by Michael Moorcroft
- Date submitted
- 6 November 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am very concerned at the enormous extent of the array of vast Wind Turbines as high as The Eiffel Tower. There will be no place on the West Sussex Coast that the horizon is not dominated by them by day and night. It cannot be right that such large turbines are allowed to be situated even closer to the shore than Rampion 1. The government agencies have already established that wind farms are more efficient further out to sea. If the turbines were predicted to have an above average efficiency; one could see the point of situating them here but at 33% or less, it is clear that there are better sites around the British Isles. Dogger Bank, for example, where they could connect to existing ultra high voltage transmission lines. It does not make sense to have small inefficient wind farms dotted around the the island each having an onshore cable that requires ripping a 30km by 50m gash through a National Park. And there is supposed to be a 25 km buffer around National Parks, this proposal clearly goes against Nationial Government Policy. At the presentation to the Parish Council, Rampion tried selling the idea as local power for local people. We know that is nonsense, the power is transmitted to the National Grid. At the same presentation, Rampion deliberately played down the enormous amount of upset would be caused during the building process, both at sea and on land. The driving of piles into the seabed for the foundations will be incredibly noisy and will tear scars into the seabed, disturbing residents above water and the fragile marine environment below. At 160db for each strike, it is likely that I will not sleep for the 4 years that it goes on night and day. At the meeting, Rampion also played down the height of the turbines and never followed up with a promised visual aid to show how it would look from Middleton Beach. I am also very concerned about the infrasonic noise generated by these enormous machines placed so close to us on the shore. Just because it's green, doesn't mean its right. Looking into the entities behind this application, I suspect that this is part of RWE trying to greenwash their image to detract from the fact that they are the largest coal-using generators in Germany. And we already suffer hugely on the South Coast from the appalling behaviour of Macquarie Infrastructure. Their mismanagement of Southern Water has left us with a frequently polluted sea that is keeping away tourists from the local economy and ruining the reason why we live by the sea; swimming.