Wind turbines are necessary to ensure the sustainable future of society, but they still have a recycling problem. Decommissioned facilities are in many cases destined for landfills, while the steel parts that actually end up in recycling facilities are only broken down after generating large amounts of (often dirty) greenhouse gas emissions. However, two Dutch companies recently proposed new ways to repurpose the physically largest and most cumbersome parts of a wind turbine into small houses, boats and more.
Vattenfall and design studio Superuse will be present from October 19 to 27 during Dutch Design Week 2024 showcasing a house of approximately 393 square meters built in a retired nacelle: the upper, steel-encased part of a wind turbine containing the generating components, such as the generator itself, the gearbox, the brake train and drive mechanisms. After hollowing out the nacelle’s original internal components, the team used the enclosure for a prototype that now has a living area, bathroom and kitchen with amenities such as electricity and solar water heating, as well as a heat pump instead of a turbine. parts.
“We are looking for innovative ways in which you can reuse materials from used turbines… [which necessitates] turning it into something new with as few adjustments as possible,” Thomas Hjort, director of innovation at Vattenfall, said in a statement. “That saves raw materials [and] energy consumption, and in this way we ensure that these materials can be used for many years after their first working life.”
Superuse didn’t take the easiest route to the new home. The team – with help from sustainable design firms Blade-Made and Woodwave – reportedly selected the smallest possible gondola to build a building code-compliant home, rather than selecting a larger, modern gondola for the project that would would have provided more space for installing electrical wiring. and devices. In this case, the model home uses the nacelle of a 2 mW V80 turbine. But more recent designs are often much more spacious than the 20-year-old V80’s source material, meaning future versions could offer even more space for residents.
The project designers estimate that at least 10,000 V80 turbine nacelles currently exist worldwide, most of which are still in operation. However, that will change in the coming years as global demand for wind energy increases and more advanced turbines are installed to meet those needs.
“If such a complex structure as a house is possible, then many simpler solutions are also feasible and scalable,” says Jos de Krieger, partner of Superuse and Blade-Made.
[Related: A new solution could keep old wind turbine blades out of landfills.]
And to make their point clear, Vattenfall recently came up with another example of upcycled turbine parts. Earlier this month the company also revealed that prototype tests indicate that relatively small turbine blades can be made floating with a few adjustments. Once properly sealed and reinforced, architects Sonja Draskovic and Jasper Manders covered their 30-meter-long test sheet with green artificial grass, an enclosed one-room home, as well as a wooden fence and garden table to demonstrate one use case. And the potential uses for these miniature artificial islands may not end there.
“[W]I started thinking: what can we do with this new country?” Draskovic said in a statement. “Solar parks, playgrounds, houses: everything is possible.”
Draskovic and collaborators noted that the blade they used, like the gondola housing, is one of the smallest currently available. More recent designs are nearly 100 meters long, which could pose challenges for future floating tests. But repurposing knives does not have to remain in the sea. Beyond boats, designers believe decommissioned turbine blades or their smaller parts could find their way into traffic noise barriers or parking garages.
A combination of reuse will likely be required to fully complete the circular life cycle of a wind turbine, while problematic components such as their batteries loaded with rare earth elements require extra attention and solutions. Meanwhile, the design teams still need to conduct additional experiments and modifications to both the tiny house and the boat before scaling them up for wider use. Still, the recycling incentives have already inspired people like Vattenhall’s innovation director to look to the future for additional recycling options.
“With this design, I no longer see images of wind turbine blades that we bury underground as bulky waste,” says Thomas.
