Sweden built a five-storey car park using 57 retired wind turbine blades; today, they form walls around 365 parking spaces

What happens to a wind turbine blade after it has spent years generating renewable electricity? In southern Sweden, the answer can be found somewhere unexpected, wrapped around hundreds of parked cars. Instead of sending 57 enormous blades for disposal, they have been given a second life as part of the façade of a five-storey car park.From a Danish wind farm to a Swedish buildingThe blades originally belonged to the Nørre Økse Sø onshore wind farm in Denmark. The wind farm was decommissioned in 2023, leaving Vattenfall to decide what to do with its ageing components. An earlier company report says the 57 blades came from 19 turbines and measured about 23.5 metres each. Rather than simply grinding the blades down, architect Jonas Lloyd proposed cutting them into sections and incorporating them into the new Niels Bohr car park in Lund’s Brunnshög district. The completed building officially opened in December 2025 and Vattenfall describes it as Europe’s first “wind power-built” car park.

How were 57 turbine blades used?The blades haven’t been used to hold up the building. Instead, sections form large parts of its curtain-wall façade non-load-bearing walls that allow the parking structure to remain sufficiently open for safety. Architect Lloyd wanted the origin of the unusual building material to remain obvious, describing the approach as “visible sustainability”. Rather than hiding the recycled components, the design lets visitors recognise pieces of former wind turbines in the walls. The car park contains 365 spaces across five floors, along with 40 electric-vehicle charging points, solar panels and an energy-storage system.

Why are old wind turbine blades difficult to deal with?The project tackles a growing challenge facing the wind industry. Turbine blades are engineered to withstand years of powerful winds and harsh weather, but that durability also makes them difficult to process when their working lives end. According to Vattenfall, Lloyd actually conceived the car-park idea after reading about the American wind industry’s difficulties in recycling retired blades.

Reusing large sections also meant the project could take advantage of material that was already available instead of purchasing some new construction materials. Dan Klitgaard of Vattenfall said that even when a product reaches the end of its original working life, it can retain value “as material in a new product.”

From generating power to surrounding parked carsFor years, these 57 blades turned above the Danish countryside as part of a wind farm. Today, they perform an entirely different job in neighbouring Sweden. They no longer produce electricity, but neither have they become anonymous waste. By making the blades one of the building’s most visible features, the Niels Bohr car park offers a striking example of how infrastructure designed for one purpose can find an unexpected second life when that purpose ends.