Sand batteries: scientists have found a cheap and environmentally friendly way to extract and store energy

Finland launched the world's first sand battery, which allows months to save the energy of the sun, wind and other renewable sources. with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

The technology developers hope that their invention will solve the main problem standing in the way of the rapid development of green energy - its seasonal nature.

The principle of operation of the battery is simple: cheap solar and wind energy is used to heat a pool filled with cheap dirty sand.

Sand can be heated to a temperature of about 500°C, and its high heat capacity allows you to save the lion's share of energy, which can later be used to heat residential buildings in winter, when the demand for heat increases greatly - and prices rise along with it.

On the subject: Balloons are a new weapon: the Pentagon came up with an unusual way to spy on Russia and China

Finland buys most of its gas from Moscow, so the full-scale invasion of Russian troops into the territory of Ukraine has made the problem of energy transition “to green rails” especially pressing.

Of all the EU countries, Finland has the longest border with Russia - and after Helsinki announced its desire to join NATO, Moscow completely stopped supplying its “unfriendly” western neighbor with gas and electricity.

Winter in Finland is long and frosty, so the lack of certainty about how to light and heat houses with the onset of cold weather worries not only politicians, but also ordinary citizens of the country.

A new technology, launched on July 5 at a small power plant in the western part of the country, may help solve this urgent problem.

The novelty does not look very impressive, in fact, it is a giant bunker of a dull gray shade, filled with 100 tons of construction sand. However, the potential of this repository is huge.

It is possible that this widespread and very affordable building material has the properties necessary to create a cheap and efficient battery that will allow the accumulation and storage of environmentally friendly energy.

The global climate crisis and more recently soaring fossil fuel prices have led to a surge in investment in renewable energy.

Finding suitable areas for this, setting up new solar or wind farms there and powering the power grid from them is a relatively simple task. It is much more difficult to solve another problem - the inevitable dependence of production volumes on the time of year and time of day.

What do you do when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow?

How to ensure continuity of energy supply?

The dramatic increase in the number of green power plants will require increasing energy production in other ways to balance the grid if necessary.

The most obvious solution to the problem is the construction of capacious batteries that allow one to accumulate the energy produced and then release it back, balancing the network as production drops seasonally.
Most batteries today are made from lithium. They are relatively expensive, take up a lot of space, and don't handle overcharging very well.

However, a group of young engineers have just completed the installation of the world's first sand accumulator in Kankaanpäa, Finland, which offers a cost-effective and safe solution to this problem.

“Whenever the production of available green electricity surges, there is a need to quickly redirect the excess into some kind of temporary storage,” explains Markku Ylönen, one of the technology developers and co-founder of Polar Night Energy.

The first sand accumulator was installed at the Vatajankoski power plant, which provides district heating to nearby communities.

Cheap electricity heats the sand to a temperature of 500 ° C due to the so-called resistive heating (exactly the same principle works for electric fireplaces).

From the sand, air is heated, which circulates inside the battery chamber using a heat exchanger.
Sand is great for saving energy because the material has a high thermal capacity—meaning it heats up very slowly but cools down just as slowly; the developers say the storage facility can keep the sand at a temperature of about 500 degrees for months.

When electricity prices begin to rise seasonally, the hot air from the accumulator is used to heat water for the central heating system. Already from there, heat is supplied to apartments, offices and even heats up the local pool.

Cheap and angry

The prototype sand battery was developed in a former pulp mill in Tampere, whose city council purposefully provided the site and provided the necessary funding for this.
“If power plants can only operate for a few hours a day during the coldest winter period, heating will be very, very expensive,” explains Elina Seppänen, who oversees energy and climate issues at the city government.
“But if we are able to store this energy and, if necessary, quickly redirect it back to the grid, the savings from such storage can be enormous.”

The main question that has yet to be answered is how scalable the experimental technology is. How profitable will a sand battery be? Will its energy be enough to ensure an uninterrupted supply of heat and electricity to hundreds of homes?

Sand perfectly stores heat, but converting it back into electrical energy necessary for supply to the network is a much less efficient and more expensive process.

However, in the long term, the technology could prove to be very beneficial for large industrial enterprises, whose main energy costs are now covered mainly by burning fossil fuels.
Several other research groups around the world are working in the same direction - using sand as a heat storage device for green energy needs, including the team at the American National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants, and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York.

However, the Finns were the first to create a functioning commercial system - and so far, according to one of the project investors, “everything is working as expected.”

“The method is really simple, but we liked the idea of ​​​​trying something new - being the first in the world to create something like this,” admits the managing director of the power plant, Pekka Passi. “To some extent, this is probably a crazy project, but I believe that it will end successfully.”

Read also on ForumDaily:

Takes dozens of 'demonic dolls' to the beaches of Texas: they terrify visitors

Regular consumption of milk can cause Parkinson's disease: how to replace this product

The planet explodes from the inside: due to global warming, gas flares up in the bowels of the Earth

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.