Tallest Wooden Wind Turbine

Tower Geometry: Cylinders vs Trusses

• Several comments explain modern towers as cantilevered beams dominated by lateral wind loads from any direction; bending stresses are highest at the perimeter, so a thin-walled hollow cylinder is near-optimal for material efficiency.
• Truss/grid structures (like cranes) let wind pass through, which is desirable for cranes but not for turbines whose blades must extract wind energy.
• Cylindrical/tubular structures often win on labor cost: factory-rolled sections with welded flanges are fast to assemble compared to many lattice pieces and bolts.
• One commenter objects that “put all material at the perimeter” is an oversimplification because gravity, local loads, and stability also matter, but others argue that doesn’t change the hollow-vs-truss conclusion for towers.

Why Wood Towers? Strength, Cost, Transport

• The company claims steel is strong per volume, but their laminated veneer lumber (LVL) is better per weight and per cost if you can accept thicker walls.
• Standardized tower geometry and well-known loads make wind towers a simpler use-case for engineered timber than skyscrapers.
• Wood segments can be trucked on normal lorries and potentially scaled; some wonder if container-shippable modules could enable further cost reductions.

Blades, Foundations, and Recyclability

• Many see blades and huge concrete bases as the real ecological issues, not steel towers. Blades are composite, historically landfilled; newer processes (e.g., cement kilns, recyclable designs, chemical recovery) are emerging but not fully scaled.
• Concrete bases are massive and effectively permanent, sealing soil even if covered later.
• Some suggest wood blades for smaller turbines and note projects pursuing wooden blades already.

“Net-Zero” Claims and Lifecycle Emissions

• Multiple commenters say wind’s lifecycle emissions are already very low and “paid back” within months when displacing gas generation.
• The “net-zero” branding here appears to rely on biogenic carbon stored in the wood tower offsetting manufacturing emissions. Skeptics ask what happens to that carbon after ~30 years, especially if LVL contains resins and ends in incineration or low-grade reuse.
• Others emphasize that even a 30% reduction in already-low gCO₂/kWh is marginal compared to larger climate problems, but still a nice improvement.

Grid Integration and Backup

• Some worry about costs of balancing variable wind and mention blackouts (e.g., recent Iberian event) and low-inertia grids; others argue investigations don’t show renewables as the root cause.
• Several argue variability is overblown: grids already manage changing loads, gas peakers, imports/exports, load-shedding, and emerging storage; firming needs only become acute at very high renewable penetration.
• Backup from existing gas plants remains common; batteries are growing but not yet decisive in most places.

Land Use, Aesthetics, and NIMBY

• Aesthetics are debated: some love turbines as futuristic; others fear truss towers would be uglier, while a few fantasize about traditional-looking “windmills” but concede they’d be much less efficient and shorter.
• Land-use concerns are strong in some countries (e.g., Norway), where new mountain roads for turbines are seen as major nature incursions and catalysts for further development.
• Elsewhere, commenters note most access roads are gravel or dirt and limited in extent compared with fossil infrastructure or resource extraction.

Timber Construction and Broader Skepticism

• There’s broader skepticism about wood “replacing steel”: many past attempts in construction have stalled, though mass timber high-rises are slowly appearing.
• One commenter calls this an over-engineered, grant-driven Nordic project: clever engineers on marginal impact problems, given that only ~10% of turbine construction energy is in the steel tower vs ~90% in the concrete footing.
• Others respond that towers are a tractable, standardized niche where timber can realistically win on cost, transport, and carbon—even if they don’t solve the blade, foundation, or grid challenges.