Swedish company Modvion has launched its first wind turbine with a tower made primarily of wood, signaling a more sustainable alternative to wind energy production. Located in Gothenburg, the innovative tower is 150 meters high and is built of 144 layers of plywood. These layers are compressed and installed in cylinders 16 to 24 meters high, and stacked at the installation site. The modular timber structure provides ease of transportation, installation and maintenance, overcoming the logistical challenges associated with traditional steel towers.
The company highlights that the modularity of wooden towers allows taller turbines to be built, as they can be transported in smaller units. Otto Lundmann, CEO of Modvion, notes that the industry intends to build turbines with a blade tip height of 300 metres, and the modules offer the flexibility to achieve this goal.
Wooden towers, in addition to being lighter, eliminate the need for additional reinforcement to support the weight, unlike steel towers. Moreover, steel modular towers require a large amount of screws and periodic inspections, while wooden modular tower parts are attached only with glue.
Sustainability is a strength, as timber towers eliminate the carbon footprint associated with steel tower production and have the potential to become carbon negative. The carbon dioxide in wood is retained unless the wood is burned or rots. The Gutenberg tower made of Scandinavian spruce is resistant to fire and moisture due to the density of the compressed wood.
Modvion plans to establish a production facility capable of manufacturing 100 modular wood turbines per year by 2027, with the ambition that within 10 years, 10% of the turbines installed globally will be made of wood. The project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme.
