More and more farms are generating electricity with their own wind turbine. Not the large gray aluminum colossi, but a small variant that looks a lot friendlier with its green mast and wooden blades. And the larch wood from which they are made comes from Staatsbosbeheer. “A good use of our wood,” says Kasper Broek, wood product specialist at Staatsbosbeheer.
Dutch Wood
Staatsbosbeheer removes approximately 200.000 cubic meters of logs from its forests every year. Kasper: “That is a lot less than the annual growth. This way we preserve our forests and still benefit from this sustainable renewable raw material. We use our raw materials as high-quality as possible to preserve the stored CO2 for as long as possible. That is why we are happy with the use of our wood in these small windmills.” Kasper is not only a product specialist but also works for the Staatsbosbeheer label Dutch Wood that sells the wood. “From the sawmill it goes to Heko Spanten in Ede, who produces the blades for EAZ Wind.”
Small-scale use
Aard Duivenvoorden is co-owner of EAZ Wind, the company that develops and sells small windmills with wooden blades. “We started this company about ten years ago from a technical background and fascination with technology. The development of wind turbines in recent decades has mainly gone from large to larger. When the need for smaller windmills arose, miniature versions of the large ones initially came onto the market. We have developed a completely new wind turbine that is suitable for smaller-scale use. The tail of the windmill ensures that it automatically faces the wind properly. Unlike large mills, no electronics are used for this. This means that less maintenance is required and less can break.”
There are now more than 850 EAZ wind turbines in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Aard: “We mainly focus on the coastal provinces, because that is where the wind blows the strongest. Generating wind energy is interesting for farms because – in combination with solar panels – they can generate their own energy in both summer and winter. This fits in with farmers' greater need for their own energy and for more sustainable business operations. The increased energy price also plays a role.”
Lariskwood
Besides its size of about 15 meters high, the choice of materials makes a big difference. “We opted for wooden blades. Larch wood is ideal for this. Because of its sustainable origin and because it can be easily recycled after use. Moreover, it has a friendlier appearance in the landscape, which is very important to us. We like to use local raw materials and local production. I like the idea that this wood often comes from Drenthe and that every 3 to 5 minutes enough larch wood grows for a set of blades.”
Kasper: “Yes, that is the beauty of wood, it is an inexhaustible resource if you manage the forests carefully. Larch wood is very suitable for this application because this type of wood has a high proportion of resin-rich heartwood. This makes it highly resistant to wind and weather. It is also widely used for other outdoor applications such as construction timber or as cladding for houses. These larch wood windmill blades are a new and recognizable example of good use of our wood.”
Source article: Forestry Commission
Photos: EAZ Wind
