In April, Swedish wood technology company Modvion erected its first wooden tower in Björkö outside Gothenburg. The plan is for construction of the 30m-tall tower to be followed in 2022 by the first commercial example.
“During their life cycles, Vattenfall’s wind turbines already have very low levels of climate-impacting emissions,” said Daniel Gustafsson, Vattenfall’s head of land-based wind power development in Sweden. “We want to drive those levels down even further. We see that wooden towers can be part of our solution for decreasing our carbon dioxide footprint, which can complement the work we are already doing with fossil-free steel as an example.”
Approximately one quarter of the climate impact that arises when manufacturing wind turbines comes from the tower, normally constructed of steel and sometimes concrete. Going forward, steel will continue to be used in many parts of the wind turbines, said Vattenfall, but wooden towers can become an important addition.
By building towers of wood, the carbon dioxide emissions caused by manufacturing can be radically reduced, while the carbon dioxide absorbed by trees as they grow is also stored in the wooden towers. In addition, certified sustainable wood raw material is used, which means, among other things, that new trees are planted.