The Finns have taken sand and turned it into an energy storage battery. Using insulated holding tanks that are 4 meters in diameter by 7 meters high filled with hundreds of tons of sand, the unit can store 8 MW-hours of heat, when the sand is heated to 500-600°C. The heat is used to keep Kankaanpää district buildings warm at night. Energy to heat the sand comes from solar panels.
The system was installed by Polar Night Energy in conjunction with the local utility Vatajankoski. The idea is to store excess solar energy as heat, which can be used after the sun goes down. The intermittency of solar and wind have long been a problem, but such energy storage systems can alleviate this problem, safely and without the use of expensive batteries. It is hoped to install 25 to 35 GW-hours of capacity worldwide over the next several years. – Steve Terry, DTC HVAC & Refrigeration Instructor
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