Swedish company activates 150-meter-high wind turbine made of wood

The Swedish start-up Modvion put its wooden wind turbine into use on Thursday. The structure is 150 meters high, making it the tallest wind turbine made of wood in the world, the company says. The wind turbine provides 400 homes with electricity.

The 2 megawatt wooden wind turbine is located outside the Swedish town of Skara, northeast of the city of Gothenburg, writes the BBC. This was built for the electricity company Varberg Energi and started supplying power to the Swedish electricity grid on Thursday.

The wind turbine has a tower of 105 meters high and with the tip of the highest blade the structure is 150 meters high. The blades are not made of wood, but of GRP. The Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has mounted the turbine on the wooden tower.

On the outside, the wind turbine looks like the wind turbines that are made of steel, but the walls of the tower consist of 144 layers of veneer wood. Each layer consists of 3mm spruce wood. 200 spruces were used for this tower, which come from sustainable logging. This means that for every tree cut down, several trees are planted.

The wood ensures that the tower is sturdy but flexible, Modvion co-founder David Olivegren told the BBC. “Wood and glue are the perfect combination. We have known that for centuries. And because wood is lighter than steel, you can build larger turbines with less material.” Modvion wants to open a factory in 2027 that will produce 100 wooden wind turbines annually.

The wind turbine is mounted on location. Source: Modivon