How the world's first sand battery stores green power - BBC News

The world's first fully working "sand battery", which can store green power for months at a time, has been installed by Finnish researchers.

The developers said this could solve the problem of year-round supply, a major issue for green energy.

Using low-grade sand, the device is charged up with heat made from cheap electricity from solar or wind.

The sand stores the heat at around 500C, which can then warm homes in winter when energy is more expensive.

#Finland #BBCNews

[ZeuzBluez]

It s an old technique. I was born in a berber village on the border between sahara desert and atlas mountains where it s very sunny during the day and below zero at night. We used to store hot sand in insulated bags at mid afternoon n use them at night as hot sand heaters.

[alphatucana]

Storage heaters are nothing new, but this seems like a good implementation of the idea, and it may scale up quite well.

[Marc-uwlw]

I hope they're talking about sand from deserts because theres no shortage of that, but there's already a limited supply of building sand

[Ianmundo]

you can’t store electricity in sand but if the temperatures stored remain well above 100 degrees you can heat water and drive turbines to generate electricity on demand. Fascinating technology

[blairhakamies]

Residents of Finland are truly a source of inspiration. 👏

[IAmSoMuchBetterThanYou]

Has nobody considered storing heat in oatmeal? That stuff stays scolding hot for hours.

[edss]

Simple technology is always the best technology! Same concept as storage heater but on an industrial scale, makes you wonder why nobody had done it sooner!

[amirmoezz]

For curious ones out there, the sand is builder sand, also known as Building Sand.

[kayouellette]

Thank you free thinkers of Finland!!!! Absolutely brilliant!

[insAneTunA]

And maybe most importantly, there is no valid argument or excuse for the haters to have any complaints, because it is not toxic at all, it can't explode, it can't catch on fire, sand is an inexhaustible source of material, it doesn't require huge transports, it is cheap, it is a relative simple and very reliable technology, and it can be build quickly without any major permits or major building restrictions. I mean, what's not to like. A huge Thumbs up for the people in Finland who came up with this brilliant idea and made it to a realistic project.

[scdbpc]

We need this so badly in South Africa as we have loadshedding every day up to 9 hours a day. Will definitely send this video to our local government. Well to Finland for using nature to sort heat. In South Africa we have so much sun but electricity is chaotic and serious problem for us

[eastcorkcheeses]

Ok, Ireland has stacks of data centers, which produce lots of low grade heat ...especially in summer, this seems like a great way to store it for when it's needed .. no shortage of sand either ..

[fxygem]

And now finally some good news for a change!

[TheSchiffReport]

So the solar energy generated in say the Sahara desert can now easily be stored in the widely available sand, no need for expensive batteries...I am already dreaming here....

[benmcreynolds]

I love creativity like this.
It's strange, weird. Out of left feild ideas like this that truly do change the world

[ash_pro_]

I wouldn't try to convert the heat stored in these sand silos into electricity - that would entail loss of energy along every step of the way (boiling water, turning steam turbines, etc). Since there's a big demand of heat energy anyway, using it to heat homes in the local community would be ideal

[AndorranStairway]

“Hey I know we’re doing a story on sand batteries, but let’s film me in a swimming pool”

[danielwhyatt]

I’ve never heard about this technique before, which is a surprise because I’m really interested in green energy and long-term energy storage. It does seem pretty simple so we should really be trying to rule this out in other countries ASAP.

[tomasviane]

Finally, we are open to creativity again! That's one advantage of quitting the cheap oil addiction!

[johnjames]

I had economy 7 brick radiators back in 1998 in my first flat.