How could you make a renewable energy even more environmentally friendly?
The German company, Timber Tower, believes it may have an answer. Create wind turbines from renewable materials, in their case wood.
They have created the technology to build wooden wind turbine towers that can be as tall as 200 metres. The towers are hollow, multi-faceted structures which are developed using ecologically sourced, PERC certified wood.
A test turbine is currently in place in Hannover, and uses a 1.5 MW Vensys wind turbine to generate sufficient electricity to power 1,000 homes.
One of the main advantages of using wood from a business point of view is the cost. Steel, which is normally used to build wind turbine towers, can be very expensive, whereas locally sourced timber is much cheaper. Transportation of timber pieces is also much easier than large tubular steel sections.
Timber Tower guarantees the wooden towers to have a minimum life cycle of twenty years, at which point the tower can be replaced, and the material recycled.
By. Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More
Comments
I used to be a structural iron worker and I built high-rise buildings in New York City. I know how large the columns and beams in high-rise buildings are; I also know that a wind-turbine tower has different stresses than a high-rise building. I'm skeptical that a wooden tower 200 meters high could support a large wind turbine and the associated stresses.