The world's tallest wooden wind turbine is turning near the town of La Scala, not far from the Swedish city of Gothenburg, in keeping with the Swedish tradition of flat furniture.
According to Modvion, the company behind the feat, the generator has a total height of 150 meters (492 feet) including blades and features a 105-meter (345 feet) wooden tower.
According to BBC News, the tower's 200 megawatt generators have begun spinning and are starting to supply electricity to the local grid, powering about 400 homes.
Wind power is one of the lowest energy sources available today and one of the more sustainable options. However, this comes at a cost. Most turbines are made of steel, which is a strong metal with a heavy carbon footprint. More powerful generators require larger towers, increasing the demand for this bulky metal.
To overcome this problem, Modvion developed the so-called "Winds of Change", the first commercial wooden wind turbine tower.
The structure can be built on-site in seven sections with a total of 28 modules. This modularity makes the tower easier to transport by road and sea, unlike traditional towers that are bulky and difficult to move.
The walls of the generator tower are made of 144 layers of 3 mm thick laminated veneer timber that is glued and compressed. The wood comes from about 200 spruces that are sustainably grown like the spruces used for Christmas trees.
Oliver Green, co-founder of Modvion, former architect and shipbuilder, said: "It's our secret ingredient, wood and glue are the perfect combination, and we've known this for hundreds of years. Because using wood (which is lighter than steel), you can build taller generators with less material. ”
This relatively small wooden wind tower will not have a significant impact on the global climate crisis.
Nonetheless, Modvion believes this proof of concept has great potential and dreams of being even more daring in future plans. By 2027, the company hopes to build 100 wooden towers a year, which could be much larger than it is today.