discarded wind turbine vessel turns into solar-powered tiny house by superuse and vattenfall

From wind turbine to tiny house at dutch design week 2024

During Dutch Design Week 2024, Superuse and Vattenfall showcase the discarded wind turbine part they’ve transformed into a furnished tiny house powered by solar panels. The design studio and energy company convert a nacelle, which is the top part of a wind turbine or the container of the engine, into a compact and movable furnished home, and visitors to the Dutch event can see it firsthand between October 19th and 27th, 2024, in Eindhoven.

The design teams receive the discarded nacelle from the Dutch company Business in Wind after they’ve acquired it from the wind farm the turbine was once used at. The nacelle was a part of the Vestas V80 wind turbine, which generated green energy in Austria for 19 years until October 2023. The tiny house was conceived and designed by Superuse Studos and executed by Blade-Made, its spin-off company, and Woodwave.

all images courtesy of Vattenfall and Business in Wind

Superuse and vattenfall electrify tiny house with solar power

The tiny house slash nacelle is 3.5 meters wide, 10 meters long, and 3.6 meters high. It comes with four solar panels on the roof that can generate 1,800-watt peak power, which is enough to power up the compact home. Each panel functions on its own and has its own micro-inverter for 230V alternating current.

In this way, the power still continues to flow even if one panel breaks down or needs repair. Because it is powered by solar panels, the design teams add a charging socket on the side of the tiny house, so users driving an electric or hybrid car can recharge their vehicles using the discarded wind turbine nacelle, with up to 22 kW charging capacity.

the four solar panels on the wind turbine tiny house can generate 1,800-watt peak power

equipping wind turbine tiny house with smart features

It’s not a functional tiny house without furnishings. In fact, the wind turbine nacelle, which is named Nestle, is complete with a kitchen, bathroom, and living space. Superuse Studios and Vattenfall go for wood and earthy interiors to bring lightness inside the home, and they place a solar power boiler with 50 liters of hot water so the owners can shower, wash, do their dishes, and more. With this boiler, it uses the energy coming from the solar panels. The setup stores the surplus of green energy in the boiler and does not feed it back into the grid.

The design studio and the energy company also have a ‘heat pump’ alongside the air conditioning for heating. It does what it says – pumping heat – to keep the tiny house warm, even if the temperature outside is around -15 degrees Celsius. Because it’s a small space, there’s a need for proper ventilation. The design teams plant a ventilation grid onto the wooden wall. It extracts used air from the inside, then blows back fresh air from the outside. It comes with heat recovery technology, so even when the air is cool outside, the air it brings back inside is warm.

outside view of the wind turbine nacelle turned tiny house

Insulation comes next for Superuse and Vattenfall. They seal the insulation within the repurposed wind turbine nacelle to create an almost airtight construction. The setting allows for the air freshening system and for the ventilation on the wall to work well. The nacelle has a few large windows, and to improve the insulation the design teams opt for triple-glazing glass. The tiny house can be movable, so long as there’s a crate that can lift it up, and it doesn’t take up so much space, as visitors see in the Dutch Design Week 2024.

The design teams say that in the next few years, thousands of wind turbines may be demolished or replaced. Most of their parts are made of metal or concrete – such as the foundation, tower, gearbox parts, and even the generator – which makes it easy to recycle them. ‘Steel, for instance, can be melted down and reused, but the downside is that this takes a lot of energy and creates emissions. It would be better if the materials could be reused with as little processing as possible,’ say Superuse Studios and Vattenfall. One way they’ve suggested so far is transforming one of them into a livable tiny house with modern technologies for some green living.

inside the wind turbine nacelle turned tiny house