Can wood make wind turbines even greener?

A look at the global rise of timber as a low-carbon building material

Exposed wood grain and an access ladder inside the structure of a Modvion AB wooden wind turbine tower being installed near Skara, Sweden, on Sept 6, 2023. Picture: AnnaCarin Isaksson / Bloomberg

A giant crane hoists a 40-ton chunk of turbine tower almost 200 feet (60 meters) in the air and then places it atop a half-finished structure. What’s different about this project is that it isn’t made from the usual ingredient: steel.

Rather, startup Modvion AB is building the tower out of wood — a material it says will reduce the carbon footprint by more than 90%. This will be the world’s tallest turbine of timber when completed in the coming weeks, and then it will be sold to a utility supplying clean energy to local homes and factories.