⚡️ The technology converts electricity into heat and stores it for later use.
👉 According to its developers, the founders of Polar Night Energy, this innovation could help solve the problem of storing renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, as the batteries can be used when there is no sun or wind.
🏖 The sand offers an alternative to lithium-ion batteries, which are made of expensive and relatively rare metals and can only store limited amounts of energy.
🇫🇮 The initial version is currently being tested in Kankaanpää, a city in southwestern Finland.
🛢 The device uses a 7-meter-high steel container filled with 100 tons of construction sand to store energy for the local power plant, which will provide district heating to about 100 homes in the area year-round, as well as to its municipal swimming pool.
🔋 The designers of this first-ever sand battery assure that it can store heat at about 500°C for about three months using an air circulation system.
♻️ "This innovation is part of the transition to smart, green energy," said Markku Ylönen, co-founder of Polar Night Energy, which developed the battery.
👍 This is the first fully operational commercial sand battery project.
🔥 For now, this battery can only redistribute energy in the form of heat, not electricity. The researchers therefore intend to explore the technical feasibility of converting it into electricity as soon as possible.