Creative Heart on Beach Road in Littlehampton, a not-for-profit community interest company which helps tackle loneliness and mental health issues, received a capital grant for their solar pv and battery storage system.

“We’re a busy community hub and arts café providing low-cost meals to our community, and since the Rampion Fund has funded our solar panels and battery, we’ve been able to provide more meals to people who need them,” said Claire Jones, manager of Creative Heart.

“We offer a warm and welcoming space here and the panels and the battery have provided  enough power to cover about half of our electricity costs.”

Other organisations benefiting from Rampion Fund grants include The Henfield Hall in Horsham District which saved over £12,000 on their energy bills in the last two years, after installing solar panels and batteries. And FareShare Sussex & Surrey, who redistribute food to thousands of people living in food poverty, thanks to electric vehicles provided by the Rampion Fund.

Run by Sussex Community Foundation, over the past eight years, the Rampion Community Benefit Fund has provided £2.1 million in grants and supported over 200 Sussex community projects. More than a million local people in Sussex have benefited from the fund, which covers projects in the region from Littlehampton Harbour in the west to Beachy Head in the east and up to the A272 near Twineham in the north.

For more information about the fund and how to apply, visit here.

The RWE-operated Rampion Offshore Wind Farm supplies enough green energy to power the equivalent of almost 409,000 homes - around half the homes in Sussex - and reduces CO₂ emissions by up to 600,000 tonnes a year.