Vattenfall, a Swedish energy company, and Superuse, an international design studio based in Rotterdam, have teamed up to repurpose an old, decommissioned wind turbine into a tiny home.

In a new project on display for Dutch Design Week running from October 19-27, Vattenfall set out to showcase circular solutions in the wind energy sector. It worked with Superuse to convert an old wind turbine that had been operating for 20 years in Austria.

The house spans 4 meters wide, 10 meters long, and 3 meters tall, and as part of its mission to achieve a fossil fuel-free future, Vattenfall equipped this tiny home with eco-friendly components including solar panels, a heat pump and a solar water heater. The project was designed by Superuse and developed by Blade-Made, a spin-off of Superuse, and Woodwave.

Superuse chose to build within the nacelle of a Vestas V80 2MW turbine model, which had a very small interior, to meet local building codes. That means future converted turbines could have even larger nacelles for more spacious homes.

Despite the small interior, the resulting home comes equipped with many standard creature comforts, including a kitchen, bathroom and living area. However, as reported on the Dutch Design Week website, this tiny home also has a reconfigurable interior that can be converted into a work studio, extra office space, vacation home and more.

The tiny home helped salvage the steel and other metals and concretes that could otherwise go to waste when a wind turbine is decommissioned. The house is also furnished with sustainably made and secondhand pieces.

“At least ten thousand of this generation of nacelles are available, spread around the world. Most of them have yet to be decommissioned,” Jos de Krieger, partner at Superuse and Blade-Made, said in a statement. “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.”

As part of the design exhibition, Vattenfall also collaborated with several other design firms to reimagine uses for old wind turbines. With Cepezed, it created Floating Platforms from wind turbine blades. Vattenfall and Interactivist developed the project Turbine Times to turn the data on the decommissioned wind turbines into interactive, meaningful data visualizations about the energy transition. For the fourth collaboration on display in the exhibit, Vattenfall and Studio Carbon developed Vision 2050, a solution for wind turbine decommission that presents ideas for circularity.

“We are looking for innovative ways in which you can reuse materials from used turbines as completely as possible,” said Thomas Hjort, director of innovation at Vattenfall. “So making something new from them with as few modifications as possible. That saves raw materials, energy consumption and in this way we ensure that these materials are useful for many years after their first working life.”

According to a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory survey, wind turbines have a life expectancy of about 20 to 30 years. As the Union of Concerned Scientists reported, wind turbines, particularly the blades, can be difficult to recycle because of the mixed materials and the strength of these materials to make the turbines durable. 

As such, scientists have been working on ways to make the recycling process easier and more cost-effective, such as through developing resins that are simpler to recycle.

Companies like Vattenfall are continuing to consider methods of repurposing turbine parts to further extend the lifespan of these wind turbines and prevent them from going to landfills. For instance, Stora Enso and Voodin Blade Technology GmbH are working on making sustainably sourced wood turbine blades that can easily be reused at the end of their lifespans, and Canvus is repurposing wind turbine parts into furniture.

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In a new study, scientists detected the presence of 10 target per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including compounds such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), in samples of tap water from the UK and China as well as in bottled waters from 15 countries.

The study, published in the journal ACS ES&T Water, set out to determine potential exposure to some of the most common PFAS from water of various sources around the world. 

The study authors used 112 bottled water samples in both plastic and glass bottles, with water sourced from 15 countries as well as 41 samples of tap water in homes of Birmingham, Worcester, Coventry and Derby, UK and 14 water samples from homes in Shenzhen, China.

The team of researchers behind the study found PFOS and PFOA were most common in bottled water, showing up in more than 99% of the bottled water samples. Other PFAS were detected in 67% to 93% of the bottled waters.

According to the study, the PFAS present in natural mineral water were around 0.82 nanograms/liter compared to the approximate 0.47 nanograms/liter detected in purified bottled water. However, the researchers didn’t find any notable differences in the PFAS detected in glass versus plastic bottles or still bottled water versus sparkling. 

“Our findings also suggest that the potential health risks of PFAS in drinking water may be influenced by lifestyle and economic conditions, highlighting the need for future research to further explore these factors from a socio-economic perspective,” Yi Zheng, co-author of the study and a professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology, said in a statement.

As for tap water, the scientists found higher PFAS concentrations in samples from China (around 9.2 nanograms/liter) than the samples from the UK (around 2.7 nanograms/liter).

The authors did note that while they detected PFAS in the various bottled and tap water samples, the amounts generally did not exceed the limits set by various regulatory agencies. Still, the team noted that the high rates of detection did raise concerns about PFAS monitoring.

“While current PFAS levels in most water samples are not a major health concern, ongoing monitoring and regulation are crucial to protect public health,” said Stuart Harrad, co-author of the study and a professor at the University of Birmingham. “We provide valuable data on the presence of PFAS in drinking water alongside practical solutions to mitigate consumer exposure via drinking water. This is a significant step towards ensuring safer drinking water for communities worldwide.”

The researchers also tested ways of filtering some of these PFAS and found simple methods that consumers could take from home until regulatory agencies can enhance PFAS monitoring for water. 

Boiling water offered a removal rate of around 55% for all 10 PFAS, but it was particularly effective for compounds such as MeFOSA and EtFOSA. Filtering with activated carbon filters, such as with a filtered water pitcher, was especially effective at removing PFAS across the board, ranging from around a removal rate of 81% to 96%, depending on the type of PFAS. Filtering with activated carbon then boiling the water presented water removal rates of around 81% to 99.6%.

“Our findings highlight the widespread presence of PFAS in drinking water and the effectiveness of simple treatment methods to reduce their levels,” Harrad said. “Either using a simple water filtration jug or boiling the water removes a substantial proportion of these substances.”

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For the first time, researchers have found microplastics in dolphin breath, raising concerns over the amount of microplastics the animals are drawing when they come up for air.

The team collected samples of air released by five bottlenose dolphins in Sarasota Bay, Florida and six dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana in May and June of 2023. Researchers took extra precautions before collecting exhalation samples from the dolphin blowholes to clean any ocean water from the blowhole area to avoid contamination.

They found suspected microplastics in all exhalation samples and a total of 54 unique particles across all of the samples. The scientists published their findings in the journal PLOS ONE.

“We know that microplastics are floating around in the air, so we suspected that we would find microplastics in breath samples,” the authors said, as reported by AZoCleantech. “We are concerned by what we are seeing because dolphins have a large lung capacity and take really deep breaths, so we are worried about what these plastics could be doing to their lungs.”

According to the study, the most common microplastic was polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which appeared in 53% of samples. Polyester was the second most commonly detected microplastic, showing up in 24% of samples. They found polyamide in 12% of samples as well as both polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) in 6% of the samples.

“Microplastic inhalation in humans is a budding field, but there have been few studies in wildlife,” said Leslie Hart, co-author of the study and associate professor of public health at College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, as reported by The Guardian. “The fact that dolphins have a much larger lung capacity and are taking deep breaths may mean they are exposed to higher doses of microplastics than humans.”

Earlier this year, a separate study revealed that microplastics could be accumulating in food webs around the Galápagos National Park of Ecuador, which raised concerns over how the accumulated microplastics could impact local wildlife, including endangered Galápagos penguins.

Freshwater bodies are also impacted by microplastics, with a 2023 study revealing microplastic contamination in all aquatic species found in river mouths that flow into the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Mussels and oysters were particularly impacted by microplastic contamination, that study found.

The team behind the microplastics in dolphin breath study are now concerned over how the accumulation of inhaled microplastics could affect the animals’ lungs, as lab studies for rodents have previously linked inflammation and oxidative stress from microplastic exposure to pulmonary fibrosis, which would make lung function for dolphins when diving more challenging.

“Dolphins rely on lung compression and collapse during diving, the capacity of which could be reduced by fibrosis. Additionally, the depth at which lungs compress and collapse determines gas exchange, which would be limited by fibrosis as well,” the authors wrote in the study.

The researchers wrote that more research is necessary to determine if microplastic exposure through inhalation could worsen the health risks of microplastics.

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To better prepare students for a future shaped by climate change, University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) has a new requirement for first-year attendees beginning fall quarter 2024 and beyond. Students must take at least one course relating to climate change in order to meet graduation requirements.

As NBC 7 San Diego reported, the new requirements are taking effect for the incoming freshman class of fall 2024 that includes around 7,000 students. There are currently more than 40 courses that meet the newly established Jane Teranes Climate Change Education Requirement (JTCCER), which was named to honor Jane Teranes, a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and climate education advocate at UC San Diego who died unexpectedly in 2022.

The new requirement will not increase the workload for students. Instead, the approved courses were selected to overlap with many existing degree requirements as well as the general education or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion course requirements for all students, meaning one course could satisfy more than one educational program requirement.

“We set up the new requirement with the best intentions to make sure that UC San Diego produces graduates who are ready to meet the challenges of a changing climate, regardless of their field of study,” Sarah Gille, a professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in a statement. “We need everyone engaged in this work, and we hope the JTCCER program will inspire others to follow suit.”

As The Guardian reported, a qualifying course will need to include at least 30% of climate-related materials that address two or more of the following criteria: scientific background for understanding of climate change; societal impacts of climate change; potential solutions for climate change; and hands-on projects or experimental learning opportunities.

Some of the courses that meet the JTCCER include “Documenting Climate Change: Past and Present,” “The Astronomy of Climate Change,” “Energy Economics,” “Indigenous Approaches to Climate Change,” “Introduction to Geochemistry,” and “Planning for Natural Hazards.”

The requirement was initially proposed by the UC San Diego Campus Committee on Climate Change and led to the Senate–Administration Workgroup on Climate Change Education for All formed in 2022. Teranes and Wayne Yang, professor a provost of UC San Diego’s John Muir College, were co-chairs of the workgroup and structured the climate change course requirement proposal on the university’s DEI course requirement, which was established in 2011.

“We took the best learnings from the DEI requirement — which Jane was also involved with — ensuring that the requirement does not add additional time to degree for students,” Yang said in a statement. “The climate requirement incentivizes and encourages faculty to integrate climate change education into their upper division courses, and thus deepens the curriculum by focusing on what students can actually do about climate change from their disciplines. Importantly, it treats climate change as an interdisciplinary issue.”

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In England, wet weather brought on by climate change has led to the second-worst harvest on record, affecting everything from wine grapes to wheat.

As The Guardian reported, a longer stretch of cold, wet weather from fall to early summer has led to wine grape harvests that are down by 33% to 75%, depending on the region. According to World Weather Attribution, rain in the UK from late 2023 into early 2024 was 20% more intense because of climate change.

For 2024, the UK Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) found that the wheat harvest in England was around 10 million metric tons, which was down 22% compared to the 2023 harvest. The decline reflects both a decrease in the wheat yield and the area that was used for wheat farming.

Other major crops also saw declines, with a decrease of 26% in barley harvested in the winter (although the spring harvest of barley saw a 41% increase). Oilseed rape production declined significantly, yielding 687,000 metric tons in 2024, a 33% decline compared to 2023. 

The wheat straw production is also expected to decline further, yielding 2.4 million metric tons and representing a 17% decline.

According to Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), England imports about half of its food, so when harvests are poor, the country must spend more to import more. But extreme heat and climate change are impacting other countries as well, leading to more strain on food security and food costs.

ECIU estimated that there could be major financial losses totaling £600 million ($784 million) on just five crops: wheat, winter barley, spring barley, oats, and oilseed rape. In total, these crops represented a 15% decline compared to 2023 and an 18% decline over the 5-year average.

“This year’s harvest was a shocker, and climate change is to blame. Whilst shoppers have been partly insulated by imports picking up some of the slack, Britain’s farmers have borne the brunt of the second worst harvest on record,” Tom Lancaster, land, food and farming analyst at ECIU, said in a statement. “It is clear that climate change is the biggest threat to UK food security. And these impacts are only going to get worse until we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to net zero, in order to stop the warming that is driving these extremes.”

Lancaster noted that the UK government will need to consider investments in sustainable agriculture to make the country’s farms more resilient to worsening threats of climate change.

Farmers have also noted their concerns over the declining yields and extreme weather events, from floods to droughts to heat waves, which have led to more worries over the remaining 2024 harvests and yields into 2025.

“We’re getting into a situation where autumn planting is becoming unviable due to flooding and spring planting is risky because of drought,” Colin Chappell, an arable farmer in Lincolnshire, said in an ECIU statement. “It is causing a lot of nervousness and uncertainty. Farmers are going to need support to see them through this and ensure they are resilient in the future. This is certainly not the time to cut the agriculture budget, this is the time to redouble our efforts and invest in policies that boost farming’s resilience, both environmentally and financially.”

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