Part of an old turbine has been transformed into a house in a bid to prove that these structures can have a meaningful second life
You might be blown away to know that the tiny house pictured used to stand 100 metres in the air as a major part of a wind turbine.
With an average lifespan of 20 to 25 years, estimates based on International Energy Agency figures forecast that 5,000 wind turbines will now be decommissioned each year.
In an effort to reduce this waste, the Swedish energy company Vattenfall has repurposed a nacelle, the part to which the three wind turbine blades are attached, into a tiny home.
“We are in a time and space where our larger offshore wind farms are starting to reach the end of their life,” explained Vattenfall’s director of innovation Thomas Hjort. “We need to figure out what we do with these machines once they’re done with their first life. We need to ensure that they create a positive impact on society, where they are.”
Vattenfall challenged Dutch designers to come up with a solution, and the bijou space is the result. While the nacelles are no longer used to house the turbine’s gear box and generator, they are still watertight, sturdy and even offer protection against lightning.
Rotterdam-based architecture agency Superuse Studios came up with the design for the home made from a Vestas V80 2MW nacelle, measuring just 10 metres long by three metres wide and three metres high.
The tiny house created from a turbine nacelle is equipped with a heat pump, solar panels and a solar water heater, and furnished with sustainably produced and secondhand items. Image: Jorrit Lousberg
Designer Jos de Krieger said that, to his knowledge, it’s the first design of its kind – using a nacelle. “There are a wide range of wind turbine models and all of them have their own specific blade lengths and nacelle sizes,” he explained. “But with this V80 nacelle, we are in the sweet spot of it being big enough to live in and small enough to transport on land.”
Despite its humble size, the home meets Dutch building regulations in terms of providing enough living space, daylight, insulation for the roof and walls and having a large enough kitchen. It also houses a bathroom with toilet, sink and shower.
Beyond that, like any home, it had to be somewhere that people would want to live. The prototype has been produced without a bespoke design so that people can imagine putting their own stamp on it.
With this nacelle, we are in the sweet spot of it being big enough to live in and small enough to transport on land
Part of the challenge was being able to produce something that can be replicated at scale. De Krieger said that there are around 10,000 V80 turbines currently in use around the world, all with a limited lifespan. However, any potential manufacturer of the homes would need a steady supply of nacelles, something that’s difficult to guarantee.
While Vattenfall has no plans to make more houses out of nacelles, it is willing to give the parts to companies who would be interested in converting them. Hjort from the company said he had received a lot of interest while “nothing decisive yet, not anyone starting a business on it”.
Alongside the nacelle, wind turbine blades are notoriously hard to recycle as they are usually made from a carbon-fibre composite. While efforts are under way to change this, trade body WindEurope estimates that around 14,000 blades could be dismantled across Europe in the next five years, generating between 40,000 and 60,000 tonnes of waste.
Despite its humble size, the home meets Dutch building regulations in terms of providing enough living space, daylight, insulation for the roof and walls and having a large enough kitchen. Image: Jorrit Lousberg
However, several companies are already putting them to innovative reuse. ReBlade is to install canopies made from decommissioned blades at SSE Energy Solutions’ new EV hub in Dundee, Scotland. Currently awaiting planning permission, if the scheme goes ahead, they will form an overhead shelter during the charging process.
The wind turbine decommissioning firm, which has previously made furniture and even a bus shelter from repurposing blades, said that the canopies would be a “world first in public realm infrastructure”.
SSE said it anticipates fitting more of the canopies at some of the 500 EV charging hubs it’s planning to create by 2030. Meanwhile, BladeBridge has used two LM13 blades to replace steel girders for a 5.5m bridge spanning a flood channel on the Dungourney River in Cork, Ireland. It has also transformed blades into street furniture and crafted tables and chairs for a community centre in Ireland.
Main image: Jorrit Lousberg
