world's tallest wooden wind turbine will rise to 150 meters in sweden

Modvion targets world’s tallest wooden turbine

Wood technology company Modvion is building the world’s tallest wooden wind turbine tower in Sweden for its Wind of Change project. The tower will be 105 meters tall, and with the turbine blades included, the whole structure will reach 150 meters. The wooden modules that make up the tower are made from a type of wood called laminated veneer lumber. The towers are covered with thick, waterproof paint to make sure that they are watertight, and this results in a controlled volume of air inside the solid-wood tower that helps it become stable and fight humidity.

The company says that the laminated wood used in the modules is strong and lightweight, allowing for a lighter tower compared to traditional steel towers. The tower’s modular design makes transportation easier and more cost-effective, as it can be transported on standard roads without lengthy permit procedures. Modvion is installing a 2-megawatt wind turbine on top of the tower, made by a Danish wind turbine manufacturer called Vestas, and it will be the first time Modvion’s wooden tower technology will be used with a Vestas turbine.

images by Modvion

Is wood suitable for wind turbine?

The use of wood for Modvion’s wind tower is dubbed significant because it can help reduce carbon emissions during manufacturing. In fact, the wooden tower is carbon negative, meaning it stores more carbon dioxide than it emits during production, and this is because wood naturally absorbs carbon from the atmosphere. Modvion also states that the life cycle emissions from a 110-meter tall wind turbine tower of steel is approximately 1,250 tonnes of carbon dioxide while the corresponding tower in wood emits 90 percent less emissions with 125 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

But can the world’s tallest wooden wind turbine can last compared to its steel counterparts? While steel is a sturdy material, wind turbine towers are hollow inside, so there’s some room to make the walls thicker compared to the thinness of steel and doing so without taking up too much extra space. The Laminated Veneer Lumber material used in a Modvion tower does not weigh as much as steel for the same strength and may be a good choice for current wind turbines since it can offer higher strength for its weight and cost.

the tower will be 105 meters tall, and with the turbine blades included, the whole structure will reach 150 meters

World’s tallest wooden wind turbine to arrive in late 2023

Wood may also burn easily if circumstances allow it, but it is very difficult to cause a solid log to ignite such as the ones found in Modvion’s wooden wind turbine since it is too dense, making the world’s tallest wooden wind turbine a potential fireproof structure. The laminated veneer lumber, which may be dubbed the carbon fiber of nature, that Modvion uses for its wooden wind turbine is made by assembling its modular parts which include cylinders that are 16 to 24 meters tall.

These cylinders are then stacked on top of each other at the wind turbine site, just like how building blocks are stacked to build a tower. The material used for the world’s tallest wooden wind turbine is Scandinavian spruce, which is abundantly available and for which re-growth exceeds logging. The building team is currently constructing the said wooden wind turbine for the energy company Varberg Energi in the municipality of Skara in Sweden and is expected to be fully completed later this year.

the wooden modules that make up the tower are made from a type of wood called laminated veneer lumber