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What they seem to be claiming is that because the wood itself contains more carbon that is used to produce the turbine, they have net negative carbon emissions

What they seem to be claiming is that because the wood itself contains more carbon that is used to produce the turbine, they have net negative carbon emissions before accounting for actual energy production. That seems pretty dubious to me. After the turbine’s thirty year life, what happens to that carbon? At any rate, if it’s true that it takes 90% less carbon to produce in the first place, setting aside the whole “wood contains carbon” thing, that’s pretty cool.

boxed 1y ago
If you build enough of these sustained, the total amount of CO2 bound it them could be significant. Similar to growing forests or restoring peat bogs. But yea, growing forests is equally suspicious as a lot of carbon sink forests have turned out to be cut down...
aziaziazi 1y ago
That’s a great project and kudos to the team, meanwhile : > After the turbine’s thirty year life, what happens to that carbon? Those curved boards are probably mixed with epoxy or another polymer, making it a bad candidate for recycling in other wood application (paper, osb boards…), compared to first hand row trees. We’ll probably "valorize" it in incinerators.
- wizardOfScience 1y ago
  I think they plan to cut down the tower and saw it into joists basically. The tower wall should be thick enough to allow for that. You will loose some material ofcourse but most of it should be possible to use in construction.
  - peterpost2 1y ago
    Would the epoxy not have degraded over time? Making it quite a bit weaker?
    - potato3732842 1y ago
      Probably doesn't matter all that much, especially for interior material that wasn't exposed to the elements. Worst case you're probably talking strength on th order of chip board which is still useful.
    - EasyMark 1y ago
      I would still assume it could be sawed up and turned into building material, highly unlikely anything but the outside has any appreciable deterioration
Moldoteck 1y ago
"what happens to that carbon?" - biomass))
EasyMark 1y ago
wood is carbon neutral by it's very nature, however obviously this isn't because energy is needed to process it into a useable form

boxed 1y ago

If you build enough of these sustained, the total amount of CO2 bound it them could be significant. Similar to growing forests or restoring peat bogs. But yea, growing forests is equally suspicious as a lot of carbon sink forests have turned out to be cut down...

aziaziazi 1y ago

That’s a great project and kudos to the team, meanwhile : > After the turbine’s thirty year life, what happens to that carbon? Those curved boards are probably mixed with epoxy or another polymer, making it a bad candidate for recycling in other wood application (paper, osb boards…), compared to first hand row trees. We’ll probably "valorize" it in incinerators.

wizardOfScience 1y ago
I think they plan to cut down the tower and saw it into joists basically. The tower wall should be thick enough to allow for that. You will loose some material ofcourse but most of it should be possible to use in construction.
- peterpost2 1y ago
  Would the epoxy not have degraded over time? Making it quite a bit weaker?
  - potato3732842 1y ago
    Probably doesn't matter all that much, especially for interior material that wasn't exposed to the elements. Worst case you're probably talking strength on th order of chip board which is still useful.
  - EasyMark 1y ago
    I would still assume it could be sawed up and turned into building material, highly unlikely anything but the outside has any appreciable deterioration

Moldoteck 1y ago

"what happens to that carbon?" - biomass))

EasyMark 1y ago

wood is carbon neutral by it's very nature, however obviously this isn't because energy is needed to process it into a useable form