COP27: Sussex wind farm expansion plans can power 1m more homes, businesses & schools, claim bosses

• Is the South East's transition to greener energy fast enough? Tap to watch video report by ITV Meridian's Charlotte Wilkins

An offshore wind farm boss in the South East claims expansion plans will be able to power one million more homes, businesses, and schools in Sussex.

For nearly five years, the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm has created enough energy for almost 350,000 homes.

If consent is granted, the company says their new Rampion 2 turbines will be key to accelerating the transition to greener energy. Crucial they say, because of the war in Ukraine threatening the UK's energy security.

Chris Tomlinson, Development and Stakeholder Manager for Rampion 2, told ITV News Meridian:

"This is an indigenous home grown resource we must exploit because of climate change, all these extremes weather events.

"The government has now increased the target we now have, to get five times the amount of offshore wind in place by the end of this decade than was the case in 2020."

But as new licences are granted for North Sea oil and gas, Brighton's Green MP Caroline Lucas fears things are moving backwards instead of forwards.

"We know quite across the world famines are worse, hurricanes and human misery is worse as a direct result of emissions already in the atmosphere.

"In fact those problems are being caused by emissions made many years ago. It feels like nature is using every single tool at her disposal to wake us up and say come on we cannot go on like this and there's no reason for us to.

"The alternatives in terms of green energy are cheaper quicker and more effective."

It comes amid a decade-long project to defuel Dungeness B, Kent's only nuclear power station, which has been brought forward.

There's no replacement planned, which means there's even more pressure on renewable energy bosses to meet COP26 pledges.

For example, the solar sector only contributes 1.8% of renewable energy in the UK, which bosses say is because getting farms up and running doesn't happen overnight.

Community Energy South is an umbrella organisation that allows communities to foster low carbon businesses in the South East. It runs a solar farm in Sussex, that powers 1200 homes.

Ollie Pendered, CEO, told ITV Meridian: "These schemes take time, there's all sorts of needs to work with: the farmer, landowner, neighbour, to work with the electricity grid to access the grid, which can be a real issue for connecting to the grid and capacity and then obviously to work with council and the planners to make sure it's the best possible project it can be."

But green energy bosses agree it's not the affordability, technology or the science behind renewables that's the problem, they say what's needed is the political will to make them happen.