Wind power and PEFC-certified timber are combining to provide a new direction in energy production and sustainable construction with a 105-metre wind turbine tower made of responsibly sourced laminated veneer lumber (LVL) from Metsä Wood. Source: Timberbiz
Swedish wood technology company Modvion is installing a timber wind turbine tower that will be the tallest of its kind using LVL supplied by the Finnish wood product company Metsä Wood.
Modvion is developing innovative solutions for wind turbine towers and replacing carbon emission-heavy materials such as steel and concrete with PEFC-certified birch and spruce plywood.
The tower will be the company’s first commercial installation and is being built for energy company Varberg Energi, in Skara, Sweden.
Metsä Wood is supplying Kerto LVL, which has a huge strength-to-weight ratio resulting in lighter towers with less need for expensive reinforcements.
According to a lifecycle analysis conducted by the Swedish research institute RISE, a wooden wind turbine tower radically reduces emissions when compared with a steel tower of the same height and load.
While the tower is the component that usually emits the most carbon, Modvion’s timber tower is carbon negative, storing more CO2 in the wood than is emitted during production. To ensure carbon storage even further and add to the circularity of the project, Modvion plans to reuse the wood after the wind turbine tower is decommissioned.
Wood enables building higher towers at a lower cost.OTTO LUNDMAN, CEO OF MODVION
The volumes of wood needed for a Modvion tower is between 300 – 1200 m³ depending on the height and load. That means an LVL carbon storage capacity between 240 – 950 tonnes CO2eq per tower.
A two-megawatt turbine will be mounted on the tower, produced by the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas. Including the blades, the total height of the wind turbine will be 150 metres.
