Tiny Houses

Wind turbine gets amazing second life as 376-sq-ft tiny house

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Built in a 2-MW wind turbine's nacelle, this tiny home offers 376 sq ft of living space
Built in a 2-MW wind turbine's nacelle, this tiny home offers 376 sq ft of living space
Despite coming from a relatively small turbine, this nacelle is pretty roomy on the inside
Take a quick peek inside this tiny home made from a nacelle.
The 20-year-old nacelle was transported from the Austrian Gols wind farm to Rotterdam to be dismantled and repurposed
Vattenfall
The Nestle features a wooden interior with a kitchenette, bathroom, and sleeping and living areas
Vattenfall
This shell is made of glass fiber reinforced plastics, and is watertight
Four solar panels deliver 1,800-W peak power to run this tiny house
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You probably knew that wind turbines can be absolutely massive. But did you know the 'nacelle,' which sits at the top of the turbine and houses components like the generator and gearbox, is large enough to live in?

That's the idea behind a recent project to repurpose decommissioned turbines. European energy company Vattenfall, in partnership with international architecture collective Superuse Studios, is exploring what's possible with these old machines by building a tiny house in a nacelle. It's adorable, and if you find yourself in the Netherlands this month, you can check it out at Dutch Design Week 2024 in Eindhoven.

Superuse picked a nacelle from a Vestas V80 2-MW turbine that ran for 20 years at the Austrian Gols wind farm, and had it brought down from its perch 328 ft (100 m) off the ground.

This nacelle is 13 ft (4 m) wide, 32 ft (10 m) long, and 10 ft (3 m) high, making for approximately 376 sq ft (35 sq m) of living space inside. It's possibly among the smallest nacelles you'll come across; newer turbines that produce more power have substantially larger parts. So if this makes for a usable home, a bigger nacelle will be even easier to transform and live in.

The 20-year-old nacelle was transported from the Austrian Gols wind farm to Rotterdam to be dismantled and repurposed
Vattenfall

Putting it all together

A nacelle makes for a good foundation, since it's watertight and lightweight. Working with a range of partner firms, Superuse kitted out the 'Nestle' with electricity, plumbing and insulation. This shell is made of glass fiber reinforced plastics, which means it's durable – but also hard to recycle. That makes it a good candidate for repurposing.

Despite coming from a relatively small turbine, this nacelle is pretty roomy on the inside

Four solar panels on the roof deliver 1,800-W peak power, enough for the house. There's also a solar-powered water boiler for washing and showering, a heat pump for air conditioning, a decentralized ventilation system that uses compact wall-mounted panels, and even an EV charging point on the exterior.

Four solar panels deliver 1,800-W peak power to run this tiny house

Next, the team put in a wooden interior complete with a kitchenette, bathroom, and a combined sleeping and living area. For this exhibition, the home was furnished with sustainably produced and second-hand furniture.

The Nestle features a wooden interior with a kitchenette, bathroom, and sleeping and living areas
Vattenfall

There's even a table made of a recycled material that came from an old wind turbine blade. You can get a look inside in the short promo clip from Vattenfall below.

Take a quick peek inside this tiny home made from a nacelle.

Jos de Krieger, partner at Superuse, explained that this project shows the path for getting even more utility out of wind turbines in the future. "At least ten thousand of this generation of nacelles are available, spread around the world," he said. "Most of them have yet to be decommissioned. This offers perspective and a challenge for owners and decommissioners. If such a complex structure as a house is possible, then numerous simpler solutions are also feasible and scalable."

That should get tiny home enthusiasts – and proponents of circularity – excited about the future of wind energy. I, for one, can't wait for when this massive 20-MW offshore wind turbine in China can be decommissioned to make a more expansive, less tiny home.

Source: Vattenfall

View gallery - 7 images
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10 comments
paul314
Sounds like container-built housing, only just enough bigger to be plausible. Nacelles are also generally structurally way strong, because they have to sit on top of the tower with only a few points of support. I just wonder about cutting windows in there.
gmbillyo
This is very neat! I would be more interested if they left it on it’s perch, now that would be a view!
Dreadalus
Why take it down first? Great view and protection from sea level rise! I guess if it's out in the ocean it would add to the difficulties of getting groceries.
TechGazer
That's a good example of re-use. It's a sturdy structure, hard to dispose of, so might as well make use of it. Nacelles of size or shape unsuitable for homes could be turned into animal shelters, storage units, or whatever.

As a home, my concern would be possible outgassing of toxic chemicals. The nacelles weren't constructed to human habitation standards, so no reason not to use toxic materials.
itsKeef
eh hem…methinks the images of the finished item have an issue with true scale. The nacelle has a cross section of 4x3 mtrs’…actually it should be three wide by four high. anyhoo, that that makes the ‘CGI’ person standing in the doorway approx, one metre high!.
IamMe
Picture 2 of them together, held together with a bellows
Add 3 wheels together in a triangle pattern.
A relatively flat nose and back.
Then you have a reasonably decent copy of the LandMaster from the Damnation Alley movie, filmed roughly 50 years ago.

If I had a nice remote piece of land, I think I would do just this for my own tiny home.
veryken
These things are best when their structure is optimized for the site. It's hurricane-proof when anchored well and the portals easy to secure. Otherwise, it's just cute with a lot of work and sometimes unnecessarily too much work to make them livable.
Miro
"Fiber glass" is basically Epoxy resin. First of all, poisonous material with big amount of BPA and other cancerogenic chemicals.
Second is with limited lifespan, less than 10 years.
Captain Danger
@miro,
This unit is already 20 years old.
Aross
This is a good idea for small low cost housing similar to what is being done with shipping containers. Putting multiple units together in an X pattern could allow for larger living spaces. Certainly better than trying to dispose of them into landfill. As for the durability and longevity of the fibreglass I doubt that is an issue. I have a 3 fibreglass canoes that spends all of their time outdoors summer and winter that are over 50 years old and still in excellent shape.