Wikado Playground's Wind Turbines Give Discarded Parts New Life

From Earth Techling's Beth Buczynski:

The wind power industry is still in its beginning stages, so few have stopped to think about what we’ll do with these giant structures when they’re beyond repair. In the Netherlands, a country with a rich history of harnessing the wind’s energy, there are already plenty of spent discarded wind turbine blades and towers looking for a second life. While their primary purpose might be all business, Rotterdam-based architectural firm 2012Architecten saw no reason why they couldn’t be recycled into something a bit more fun.

“Kinderparadijs Meidoorn,” a local children’s artistic center, was looking for help revamping a rundown playground, and the architects saw the perfect opportunity to reuse some discarded wind turbine parts. By slicing and dicing the old blades, the team created the Wikado playground, full of mazes, tunnels, towers and slides that just beg to be played on. [Text continues after images.]

Flickr images courtesy of 2012Architecten.

First, 2012Architecten mapped out the existing site and selected the wind turbine elements that were a good fit for reuse in a new playground. Then, after a suitable design was created, five discarded rotor blades were used to create a maze-like space with a panna court in the center, and placed on the existing concrete circle. Four towers go around it, each with a distinctive character. A net hands between the towers. “This is functioning as a climbing structure,” write the architects, but will also prevent balls ending up in the garden of the neighbours.” Good thinking.

As Treehugger points out, old windmills and modern wind turbines are still very much a part of the Dutch landscape. By using them to rebuild a colorful playground, the designers are able to take a historical piece of the Dutch identity and deftly integrate it into the modern city.

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Comments

[Genders]

05:00 PM on 09/02/2012

Try that with parts from a nuclear power plant of a oil refinery.....

[vetxcl]

11:20 PM on 07/17/2012

And for the "exceptionalists" that like to think of ways that wind generators will never work; there's this:
http://cleantechnica.com/2012/07/17/bird-and-wildlife-charity-to-erect-massive-wind-turbine-the-message-wind-turbines-better-for-birds-than-fossil-fuels/

[angelbell789]

06:17 AM on 07/13/2012

Thanks for the great work by the engineers to to recycle the used material; to build a new playground equipment.
http://greenproindia.com/blog/school-playground-equipment/

[Kenz300]

01:29 PM on 04/25/2012

Wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste are the future.

[yeti7]

10:04 AM on 04/16/2012

These things are such a waste and so bad for the community and environment.
Big Wind is Evil
http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/9238

[Kommonman]

12:55 PM on 07/10/2012

Harvesting free kinetic energy produced by the environment is evil? Compared to poisoning the environment by drilling to harvest oil gas and coal and then poisoning the environment to utilize such energy sourced...Sorry I have to submit that your premise is flawed in the context of what actually constitutes evil..At best your concerns can be attributed to shoddy workmanship or simple environement factor like alightning strike or to high wind or equipment failure...But still these problems do not even begin to equate to the damages done to the environemnt by big oil and gas energy production...The damage of the gulf spill alone was of such scope and magnitude that the issue you rail about with the dangers of wind turbines does not even begin to compare...Sorry but I have to state your premise is faulty compared to the destruction of our planet from the main players of the energy sector

[Genders]

04:55 PM on 09/02/2012

Nothing ever goes wrong with nukes and fossils, right?

offshore wind eliminate all of that, though it is still dangerous to maintenance them, much like drilling the deep ocean, right?

[vetxcl]

09:57 PM on 04/14/2012

Speaking of wind generated electricity and storage, here's a company doing a public utility in Alaska with increased storage capacity.

http://cleantechnica.com/2012/04/12/alaskas-1st-utility-scale-wind-farm-gets-energy-storage-boost-from-xtreme-power/

[Genders]

04:58 PM on 09/02/2012

I wonder what the cost is. Waste bio fuels and energy is a lot easier and cheaper I suspect.

[vietveter]

08:51 AM on 04/06/2012

Those look like great fun for the kids.

Too bad a group of lawyers will sue

the first time one of them gets hurt.

America either leaves kids to starve

or overprotects them. Too bad.

I would

have had fun on them as a kid.

[old soil guy]

01:54 AM on 04/06/2012

Remember the VCR/Beta wars? When a VCR cost $500 and no on could actually even program the timer on it? You rented the VCR machine, came in a big plastic case, and with the couple of tapes cost $20 for evening? Great entertainment for the family of four. Cheaper than driving to the theatre and paying $6/each for a ticket plus popcorn, soda, etc. But you had to watch it on your old 19 or 20 inch analog TV. Now a DVD player is $30 and a blue ray $80. All new technology is for the wealthy at first, then over a few years the price comes down. Same will happen with alternative energy and hybrid/electric cars. Give it a couple more years.

[vetxcl]

11:22 PM on 07/17/2012

Irrelevant. Umm, remember the TV, the radio and the airplane???

[Genders]

04:59 PM on 09/02/2012

Rooftop solar is already cheaper than nukes, clean coal, oil wars ad fracking water contamination.

Wind and waste energy and biofuels are half that again.

Not time to wait, it's time to end the 500M$ per reactor per clean coal plant and plow that and more into solar wind and waste.

[old soil guy]

01:42 AM on 04/06/2012

Seems if the $10,000 flat screen TVs of a few years that now sell for $500 the cost of all these other technological advances in alternative energy will drop in price accordingly. Actually the price of the well built Prius is in that range now. Too bad the American car builders blew this technology off years ago and are now playing catchup. The Chev Volt is a good example. If they can foster a reasonable market share in the next few years the cost will be in the Prius range. This applies to all alternative sources of electrons. I understand if this gets mainstream we'll need the ways to recharge batteries. But why can't all those parking lots in places like California and Arizona have solar power on the top of large carports to park under, and just plug your car in while you're in the office for 8+ hours? What is stopping us from using local solar to recharge batteries? Why does it have to be always done plugging in at home in your garage using coal generated electrons? Only the wealthy could by a 50" flat screen 10 yrs ago and now only wealthy can afford a Volt today. But that can change.

[vetxcl]

09:58 PM on 04/14/2012

The cost of alternative energy is decreasing, along with the cost of systems that produce it.

[In your Rear View Mirror]

11:32 AM on 04/05/2012

This could be the savior of wind power, since it has NO viable business . Throw in a half billion Solyndra throw aways and you might have good garage sale.

[French Toast]

01:38 PM on 04/05/2012

Who would want a personal computer? Why would everyone want a cell phone? Why would one want a horseless carriage?!

People like you have existed in all ages. You have never known what you were talking about and have always been left looking bad.

[ItsGettingWeird]

02:20 PM on 04/05/2012

Yeah, and indoor plumbing will never work, either.

[artleads]

02:15 PM on 04/04/2012

Excellent reuse of discarded technology. It indicates that sustainability lies not only in the direct application of the particular technology, but in imaginative ways to deploy it beyond that. For instance, so called low-density renewable energy can work better if combinbed with passive solar, conservation or with the way it supports community cohesion..

[Samuel Huntington]

01:31 PM on 04/04/2012

Wind power rebates don't add up in Nevada, who loses? The taxpayers and ratepayers.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/mar/30/nv-energy-windmill-program-generates-rebates-littl/

Excerpts Quote:
By Line:
NV Energy windmill program generates rebates, little electricity
Las Vegas Sun.

A year ago, a Reno clean energy businessman warned the Public Utilities Commission that if it didn’t set a few standards for NV Energy’s wind rebate program, its customers could end up footing the bill for turbines that rarely produce electricity.

The electricity produced by NV Energy’s $46 million wind rebate program has fallen far short of expectations.

In a startling example, the city of Reno’s wind turbines — for which the city received more than $150,000 in rate-payer funded rebates — produced dramatically less electricity than the manufacturers of its turbines promised.

As first reported by the Reno Gazette-Journal, one turbine that cost the city $21,000 to install saved the city $4 on its energy bill. Overall, $416,000 worth of turbines have netted the city $2,800 in energy savings.

[Genders]

07:42 PM on 04/05/2012

How deceptive of you. "Not all of the city’s turbines performed so poorly."

50% of nukes default.

A couple of wind turbines didn't work out. wow. scandal., no.

Wind 6 cents per KWH. half the average cost of electricity in the USA.

[vetxcl]

10:00 PM on 04/14/2012

Faved for insight. It's a shill game to some people.

[yeti7]

10:18 AM on 04/16/2012

Wind Energy is far more dangerous than gas gen. plants or even nuclear.
http://www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/page4.htm

[Samuel Huntington]

01:12 PM on 04/16/2012

you must be having some fun reviewing the comments on threads that are weeks old.

[Kommonman]

01:27 PM on 07/10/2012

Ok now place these numbers in context to deaths and injuries with the other energy sectors...oil gas coal...I submit they do not even begin to compare...now factor in the deaths from exposures to the toxins produced by the big three and again the few tragedies invovled with wind power pale immensly by comparrison...Context is everything when you seek to argue your view point...So partner follow that first part of your io and add a bit of integrity to your premise...compare the various dangers of all the energy industries and give us a valid point to begin to give your post validity