Wood-en you know it, Sweden's Modvion clinches €11 million to deliver emissions-light wooden towers for wind turbines

Europe's wood tech pioneers are delivering novel use cases for timber to eliminate manufacturing-derived greenhouse gases.
Wood-en you know it, Sweden's Modvion clinches €11 million to deliver emissions-light wooden towers for wind turbines

Sweden's Modvion recently closed on a SEK125 million (€11 million) funding. The round is backed by Vestas Ventures, the CVC wing of wind turbine producer Vestas, as well as the EU Commission's EIC Fund, Sweden's Almi Invest Greentech, Course Corrected VC, and Austrian CVC fund Symbia VC, among others.

Modvion's CEO, Otto Lundman, said the startup's programme to use wood for low-emissions wind turbine manufacturing was continuing apace. While wind-derived energy is renewable, the turbines are generally made using steel, iron, or fibreglass and producing these materials will incur emissions.

The €11 million round will help to deliver Modvion's first wind turbine installation, a 150-metre structure an-ticipated to produce 2MW of electricity.

Modvion subsequently proposes to begin work on a 6-MW wind turbine, set to become among the largest deployed onshore.

The startup is among European wood tech pioneers deploying timber to assist industries toward achieving net zero GHG emissions by 2050.

Modvion claims emissions caused by its wooden wind tower will be 90% less than steel equivalents, and the wood can also be used as CO2 storage to remove carbon produced by third parties.

Tech.eu recently tracked an acquisition of an Austrian developer of timber-clad properties, Gropyus, and there's early word of a deal struck by a European wood fibre home insulation startup, due to be announced in coming days.

Lundman commented: "To fight climate change, we need more renewable energy, and increased use of sustainable, wooden constructions.  

"This oversubscribed issue will allow us to take the next step in bringing our technology to the market and help the wind industry to build sustainable and cost-effective towers."

The wooden turbine towers are built using a modular fabrication technology, allowing them to be stacked higher to develop larger wind turbines, while also engineering the timber so that it has a "higher specific strength than steel." Modvion says wind turbines are anticipated to double in size in coming years.

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