Scottish Renewables looking at alternative drilling method under River Hundred in Aldeburgh Road, Aldringham Cum Thorpe, to connect more than 100 offshore wind turbines

An energy giant is looking to implement an alternative drilling method under a Suffolk river to connect more than 100 offshore wind turbines.

Scottish Renewables has submitted proposals to East Suffolk Council to employ a Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) method in Aldeburgh Road, Aldringham Cum Thorpe, near Thorpeness, crossing underneath River Hundred.

Planning papers described HDD as a ‘minimal impact’ to install underground utilities such as pipes and cables using a drilling rig on the surface to drill a hole.

Using HDD would replace the current open cut method, where a trench is dug along the route of the pipeline and then covered again, considered as ‘worst case’ due to its intrusiveness.

The drilling would take place across a 6.14ha area of agricultural and grazing land, woodland and the Hundred River, and take around six months to complete.

Once finished, it would be part of the connection between the onshore landfall in Thorpeness and two of the Scottish company’s offshore wind farm projects, East Anglia One North and East Anglia Two., approved in March 2022 by the Secretary of State.

The projects include a total of up to 142 wind turbines off the Suffolk coast and will able to generate 1850 megawatts of energy, enough power to fuel some 1.85 million homes every year.

Planning papers conclude the change would be ‘less harmful to the environment’ with impacts deemed to not be worse than the open cut alternative.

The application is now with the council for consideration on whether an environmental impact assessment is needed — the determination deadline for this is October 1.