A small town in Finland is experimenting with a new type of infrastructure: the world’s largest sand battery.
The battery-one 42-foot long, almost 50 feet wide silo filled with 2,000 tons of ground stone seat on the edge of a parking space. When there is extra renewable electricity on the grid and the power is cheap, the system uses electricity to warm up the ground stone. That heat is stored in the battery until buildings in the neighborhood must use it.
[Photo: Polar Night Energy]
The basic approach is simple. “We just heat the air and [circulate it] by Zand, “says Liisa Naskali, COO of Polar Night EnergyThe Finnish startup that the technology has designed. Sand, or other material that has been crushed in sand -large particles, has the possibility to store heat for weeks. Unlike some other batteries, the system does not relate to chemicals, does not relegate and will not be set on fire.
The city, called pornanans, relies on a district heating network to heat a group of buildings, from city firms and the local school to some companies and apartment complexes. Until recently, the network burned oil or wooden chips. But the municipality strives to become CO2 neutral and realized that it had to make a change.
[Photo: Polar Night Energy]
If someone in a nearby apartment turns hot water for a shower, the heat of the sand battery comes. Just like other district heating systems, the heat from the battery travels to other buildings via pipes filled with hot water; Each building has its own equipment to spread the heat to radiators, floor lotters or other HVAC systems.
[Photo: Polar Night Energy]
The battery started to run this summer and was officially inaugurated this week, which means that the district heating system no longer uses oil. In the summer it fully trusted the sand battery.
As the weather gets colder, the system will use both the battery and wood chips, but the use of wood chips can fall by around 60%. (Burning Wood Chips is technical carbon neutral because trees absorb carbon while they grow, but because trees are slow to grow and burning, it is not a good climate solution in the short term and it also produces a lot of other pollution.)
[Photo: Polar Night Energy]
Although the startup calls the technology a “sand” battery, it can use other materials. For the new installation in Pornanen, the company turned to soapstone remains from a nearby fireplace manufacturer. He helped reduce waste and the Environmental challenges of purchasing sandwhich is usually dug out of rivers, lakes or coastlines.
[Photo: Polar Night Energy]
In the silo, the company uses a heat exchanger and a closed-running system to circulate heat. Software runs heaters when the electricity prices are low. During the summer, says Naskali, the utility paid around 10% of the average electricity price by only charging at optimum times. That helps to make technology cost-competitive, although the initial installation costs are high, she says.
The startup is now in conversation with other tools. Factories can also use the technology to replace fossil fuels with processes with high heating. Other startups, including Rondo Energy and Antora Energy, are also pioneering in new approaches to thermal energy storage.
For Polar Night Energy, the project in pornen is a critical evidence. “This is really important to us,” says Naskali, “because we can now show that this really works.”
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