Our environmental promise

The Independence Towers were developed to meet current needs.
A minimal ecological footprint combined with an organic and functional design.

To maximise the ecological added value of our towers and masts, we support reforestation programmes in cooperation with associations and NGOs. In this way, Independence Towers act not only as a carbon store, but also as an atmospheric carbon sink. Compared to conventional steel or steel-concrete support structures, we reduce the greenhouse gases released during production by more than 95%.

As a buyer, you have the choice of which of the following organisations we support with your purchase:

Eden Reforestation Projects: Reducing poverty and reforesting forests is what Eden Reforestation Projects stands for. Together with the local inhabitants, the organisation sets itself the goal of planting millions of trees every year.
Green Forest Fund: The Heidelberg-based organisation acquires plots of land and plants "virgin forests" on them, i.e. forests that are not established for economic purposes and whose trees are intended to grow as old as possible. All land is purchased without exception and placed under long-term protection, which distinguishes Green Forest Fund from some other providers.
Naturefund: The organisation helps families in the Tunari National Park in the highlands of Bolivia to convert to agroforestry: In addition to higher yields, this resource-saving cultivation method creates a virgin forest again.

Greenhouse gases

Probably the best-known greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO₂).
A gas that, among other things, directly affects the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere and the pH value of the oceans. When concentrations increase, more heat radiation remains in the atmosphere than escapes into space, which ultimately leads to warming. In water, an increasing CO₂ concentration leads to decreasing pH value and thus to acidification.
For plants, on the other hand, CO₂ is a vital trace gas. The metabolism (photosynthesis; Rubisco) of a plant uses radiant energy to convert CO₂ into glucose by excreting oxygen (O₂). The carbon (C) remains in the plant and the oxygen is released back into the environment. In this way, the atmosphere is and was first enriched with oxygen, which is essential for life.

Besides CO₂ there are many other greenhouse gases such as water vapour, nitrogen, ozone or methane. The latter has a much higher greenhouse potential than carbon dioxide and is the main component of natural gas.

Wood as a building material

For thousands of years, wood was one of the most important and valuable raw materials for mankind. This is due on the one hand to the variety of possible uses and on the other hand to the fact that it is the only raw material that grows again in significant quantities. In ancient Egypt, For a long time, it was so valuable that the majority of the timber from old houses was renovated and used again in new buildings. With the beginning of the age of great discoveries, large parts of the forests of Europe were cleared for shipbuilding. It is said that Iceland was largely forested before the arrival of the Vikings. Today you have to search for a tree there for a long time.
Since the Industrial Revolution, however, wood has been replaced mainly by metals that are now more easily accessible. As a result, valuable knowledge about timber construction and the belief in being able to build on a large scale with wood has been lost. Only in recent years have modern production and simulation methods led to a gradual rethinking and a small renaissance of timber construction.

With the invention of glued laminated timber, a material was created which has a homogeneous and standardisable material behaviour. The construction of large load-bearing structural elements has now become possible and, thanks to an advantageous ratio between weight and load-bearing capacity, can be found, for example, in roofs with very large spans. From an ecological point of view, wood as a building material has the advantage that it stores approx. one ton of carbon per m³.

Recycling of WTGs

Wind turbines have a limited service life of usually 20 years. With advancing age the maintenance effort increases and thus the profitability of a WTG decreases.
The dismantling of a WTG is associated with considerable costs. Operators or contracted deconstruction companies try to compensate for part of the costs by selling valuable materials and components such as permanent magnets, copper wires and transistors.
A large part of the material used in WTGs is accounted for by the towers. These usually consist of steel tube segments that can be melted down and reused after paint removal. Both the production and recycling of steel is very energy-intensive and involves many work steps.
The rotor blades consist mainly of glass fibre composites which can only be recycled at great expense. With increasing rotor blade length, lighter carbon fiber composites are increasingly used. In countries with less rigid disposal regulations than in Germany, disused rotor blades are often buried.

The foundations of wind turbines are usually made of steel-concrete and are also completely dismantled. Depending on the size of the plant, the greatest costs are incurred here because concrete is difficult to recycle.

In order to significantly reduce deconstruction costs and, above all, to allow the carbon to continue to be stored in the wood, we develop concepts for a sensible use of the tower segments after deconstruction.