The novel Polar Night Energy sand battery, positioned in Pornainen, a minor municipality in southern Finland.(Image credit: Polar Night Energy)ShareShare by:
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Recently, a tiny municipality located in southern Finland established the world’s biggest “sand battery” for the purpose of supplying heat to the town.
This innovative sand battery, crafted by Polar Night Energy, is essentially a colossal sandbox held inside a steel container, measuring around 43 feet in height and 49 feet in width (13 by 15 meters).
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What Is a Sand Battery? Polar Night Energy’s Sand-based Thermal Energy Storage Explained – YouTube
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Renewable power options, such as sun and wind driven energy, are unlike conventional energy sources, like petroleum and charcoal, as they don’t add to the carbon impression — which makes them essential for attaining net zero by 2050.
However, solar and wind energy aren’t constantly accessible, with the amount going up and down throughout each year. Due to this, it’s crucial to discover methods to store renewable energy for utilization during instances of deficit in the energy provision.
“The paramount obstacle to broad-scale implementation of renewable energy is energy retention,” Matteo Chiesa, a professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering from the Khalifa University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi who had no involvement in the undertaking, shared with Live Science.
By directing surplus power from the electrical grid and locally generated solar and wind energy to raise the temperature of sand to a whopping 842 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius), this new sand battery has the capacity to keep thermal energy for possibly months on end, according to Polar Night Energy representatives.
Excess renewable power is kept in the sand battery for later use as thermal energy for the Finnish municipality of Pornainen.
Having a heating capability of 1 megawatt — which signifies that it has the ability to provide 1 million joules of energy each second — it can yield temperatures between 140-752 degrees F (60-400 degrees C).
“It’s been proven successful in Finland,” Chiesa stated, including that it holds significant promise of being successful elsewhere.
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Heating using the power of sand
Utilizing sand and similar grainy materials for retaining heat is a long-standing practice, with brick stoves having widespread popularity. This stems from the fact that sand — largely composed of a mix of silicon and oxygen — is commonly available worldwide. It’s capable of being heated up to remarkably elevated temperatures prior to melting, and it preserves its warmth for an extended duration.
Sand batteries diverge from batteries in a traditional sense as they don’t create electricity directly. Rather, they function as thermal energy storage units, implying that they’re charged up with the help of renewable energy, which is subsequently retained as thermal energy for application whenever energy demands outstrip the supply.
Chiesa shared that the Polar Night Energy design demonstrates “great strength,” though the present configuration may prove overly costly to shift over into household environments, which encounter related energy storage problems.
“Every instance of adding metal leads to increased costs,” he expressed. “Ideally, we should shape the sand battery’s porous quality in such a way that air has the ability to circulate evenly throughout each pore without depending on costly materials.”
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Chiesa also mentioned that Polar Night Energy isn’t presently offering seasonal storage, instead employing its system to keep energy for shorter periods — predominantly to regulate variations in wind power development.
Thermal energy storage systems such as this are highly appropriate for holding renewable energy seasonally given the lengthy duration sand needs to shed its warmth.
“A battery that enables the user to store summertime solar power and put it to use during wintertime — when warmth needs are highest — represents a robust remedy for seasonal energy demands,” Chiesa commented.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Friday, Sept. 12 at 12:19 p.m. EDT to correct the size of the plant, the temperatures it reaches and the power it outputs.
Sophie BerdugoSocial Links NavigationStaff writer
Sophie is a staff writer situated in the U.K. writing for Live Science. She writes about a diverse assortment of subjects, having previously written about research varying from bonobo communication to the primary water located in the universe. Her writings have additionally been featured in venues such as New Scientist, The Observer and BBC Wildlife. She was also short-listed as a contender for the Association of British Science Writers’ 2025 “Newcomer of the Year” honor due to her independent work for New Scientist. Prior to becoming a science journalist, she gained a doctorate concentrating on evolutionary anthropology from the University of Oxford, in which she spent four years examining the reasons for certain chimps being more skilled at utilizing tools compared to others.
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