what if lab: upcycled turbines

In the What If Lab of Dutch Design Week, at the request of energy company Vattenfall, cepezed research a possible second life for discarded rotor blades of wind turbines. Aiming for maximum sustainability, the purpose was re-use rather than recycle. Based on the very specific properties of rotor blades - their length, light weight, strength and hollow form - cepezed visioned a reuse as floats. Interlinked, rotor blades can form a floating island: new land where land is scarce.

client(s)
vattenfall

location
dutch design week, eindhoven

user(s)
what if lab / vattenfall

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expertise
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landfills?!

Discarded rotor blades from wind turbines are extremely difficult to recycle. Pulverisation is one option, but takes a lot of energy. For now, when the blades can no longer serve their purpose, a lot of them are buried. There are already a large number of discarded rotor blades on hand and that number will only increase in the near future. Vattenfall collaborated with Dutch Design Week's What If Lab to explore alternatives to recycling and ‘landfills’.

floating islands

Rotor blades of wind turbines are meticulously tailored to catch wind high in the sky. Because of their complex construction of materials, recycling is not an obvious option. However, the large quantity of discarded blades creates perspective. The commitment is to leave the blades virtually intact in their new function. Partly through its experience with other circular projects, cepezed knows how much better this is, from a sustainability point of view. cepezed calculated that their length, light weight, sturdiness and hollow shape make the rotor blades suitable as floats. Several blades together can form a floating island, for housing, fields, greenhouses or solar parks, for example. Long, narrow islands can serve as roads.

test in ijsselmeer

In October 2024, Vattenfall and cepezed tested a small island consisting of two floats in the Flevokust harbour near Lelystad. With encouraging results: they float high on the water and form a sturdy unit. All the more reason to test them further in other variations and on a larger scale.

The results of the What If Lab are exhibited at Dutch Design Week 2024. That the ‘lab’ was worthwhile is evident from the very different outcomes of cepezed, Superuse, Interactivist and Studio Carbon alone.

partners

client: vattenfall
initiator: dutch design foundation

contact
→ Mail bd@cepezed.nl or call our business development team on +31 (0)15 2150000

what if lab: upcycled turbines