World's tallest wooden wind turbine starts turning

Source: BBC

World's tallest wooden wind turbine starts turning

28 December 2023

By Jonah Fisher
BBC environment correspondent in Skara, Sweden

According to Modvion, the Swedish start-up that has just built the world's tallest wooden turbine tower, using wood for wind power is the future.

"It's got great potential," Otto Lundman, the company's chief executive, says as we gaze upwards at the firm's brand new turbine, a short drive outside Gothenburg.

It's 150m (492ft) to the tip of the highest blade and we are the first journalists to be invited to have a look inside. The 2 megawatt generator on top has just started supplying electricity to the Swedish grid, providing power for about 400 homes.

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As demand has grown for taller turbines that harvest stronger winds with larger generators, the diameter of the cylindrical steel towers to support them has had to grow too.

In a world of road tunnels, bridges and roundabouts, many in the wind industry say getting those huge pieces of metal to turbine sites has become a real headache, in effect limiting how tall new steel turbines can be.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67718719


Engineers work on the construction of the world's tallest wooden turbine tower (Modvion)