Construction of the Rampion Operations and Maintenance base at Newhaven Port is now underway, E.ON reports.
The facility will be the base for a team of 60 full time employees who will operate the 400MW Rampion offshore wind farm when complete.
The building, designed by architects Corstorphine + Wright together with the Hove based engineering firm Helmsley Orrell Partnership (HOP), will incorporate a marine and wind farm control room, offices and warehousing and is sited near the quayside for easy access to crew transfer vessels which will be operated daily to maintain the wind farm.
Preliminary work to drive concrete piles into the ground in preparation for laying the foundations, took place in spring and is now complete. The majority of the construction work will now take place during the summer, along with the installation of refuelling facilities and davit cranes which will be used by the wind farm maintenance vessels.
The operations and maintenance building is due to be finished by the end of the year with work likely to continue on the pontoons during 2018.
In the meantime, a workforce of up to 650 people is engaged in the offshore construction work, which is being project managed from a temporary base in Newhaven Port.
The Rampion wind farm is being built 13km off the Sussex coast by E.ON, the UK Green Investment Bank plc and Canadian energy infrastructure company Enbridge.
Turbine installation began in March 2017 and 33 of the 116 3.45MW MHI Vestas turbines are installed to date.