This is probably the best use of Christmas trees (though it’s up for debate whether it’s a good idea to cut down spruce trees to begin with).
Side note: it was hard to find this story on a website that’s not exclusive access or enshitified. Even the company who built the turbine (#Modvion) has a tor-hostile website themselves.
According to the BBC Newsroom they use glue instead of bolts to hold it together.
There is an article about it on BBC World’s tallest wooden wind turbine starts turning
Good find. I heard it first on BBC World Service but I guess their site has some navigation deficiencies… the radio episode page does not link to the written article.
What’s the concern with cutting down spruce trees?
SPF wood is the most common wood type for structural members in Canada and the USA.
Spruce Pine Fir
What’s the concern with cutting down spruce trees?
Some people believe trees absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere. There’s an uncited claim of 22kg/year/tree on avg for mature trees (according to the European Environment Agency). Others are claiming ½ that amount. But some people say trees are carbon neutral, and thus have no decarbonization effect. I’m not sure what to believe at this point but the benefit of living trees is clearly disputed.
One thing I’m confident about is that trees have a cooling effect by way of evaporative cooling and simply by giving shade. They also have a symbiotic relationship with boletes (mushrooms).
The trees are absorbing carbon and turn it into wood.
I’m not 100% sure but I think the best way to absorb carbon using trees is to let the trees grow and then use them in construction or furniture.
Burning them or letting them decompose.naturally will release the carbon they absorbed.
Okay………
Almost all trees that are cut down for Christmas were farmed specifically for that purpose. People have a gut reaction when they hear about cutting down trees, but trees are a renewable resource especially conifers that tend to be fast growing.
It would be nice if we could improve on gut reactions and sort out how much (if any) CO₂ is accumulated by spruce trees at the various points of maturity. Ideally the trees would only be cleared at the point where their CO₂ absorption rate tanks (which may not necessarily be when the tree would look nice in a living room) – assuming there is such a stage in its life.
Unless you’re turning it into charcoal and burying it deep under ground or allowing it to rot in a place that will be permanently banned from being tilled it’s 6 vs 1/2 dozen
Even when trees die they take years to decompose, and not all of the CO2 captured by a tree will be rereleased as CO2, as the tree is decomposing the organisms consumeing the trees will incorporate some of the carbon into themselves, approximately 4%of the tree’s weight.
Sounds so sustainable, and we can see it is also because everyone has homes food and nature is healing, and that the planet isn’t rapidly transforming into a destructive hypercapitalistic hell prison which is great news for the future of mankind
Are the windblades also made of wood? That would take away one another argument from big oil used against wind turbines, and only would leave them the “but it kills birds”.
I think they said the blades were wood when I heard it on BBC.
W.r.t killing birds, I thought that was solved a long time ago just by increasing the resistance so the blades turn slowly enough to be seen. If wood blades would have to move faster, then perhaps the birds would be threatened again.
Have they finally stopped spreading that misinformation claiming it’s killing large ocean life? Those Hannity segments in particular made my blood boil.
This article is claiming that the blades are still fiber glass: https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/worlds-tallest-wooden-wind-turbine
Iirc wind turbine blades are the largest user of balsa wood in the world. Of course they cover it in fiberglass and resin to make it stronger…
There are actually special pick up days here in the US gulf south where they take our trees and add them to the levees protecting our coast. I know Barataria uses them for large fences to control the impact of waves which I always thought was kind of cool lol
Howdy neighbor.
