The world over uses up a lot of energy and power, and so, its crisis is a real threat. As such, alternatives that deploy green or renewable sources of energy derivation are always being worked upon and in such a development, a new "Sand Battery" technology has been devised.
This new technology has been developed by a company called Polar Night Energy (PNE) and with the help of Vatajankoski, an energy utility firm based in Western Finland, it is now operational in the country in the town of Kankaanpää.
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The image above shows a silo which is not for storing grains but instead stores the sand that will be used to derive clean electricity.
In an interview with the BBC, Pekka Passi, the managing director of the Vatajankoski power plant said:
It"s really simple, but we liked the idea of trying something new, to be the first in the world to do something like this. It"s a bit crazy, if you wish, but I think it"s going to be a success.
The basic idea is that sand is a very good retainer of heat, losing very little of it, and this heat energy is extracted. Interestingly, the sand in this sand battery is actually warmed up using wasted or extra heat from other sources, like wind or solar power generators. PNE says that sand can retain around 500°C worth of heat for several months. Overall, the heat storage has 100 kW of heating power and 8 MWh of energy capacity.
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Also it is economically viable since sand is quite inexpensive. The PNE sand battery also recycles and reuses wasted sand that is utilized in Vatajankoski"s own servers.