The industrial-scale Sand Battery developed by Polar Night Energy has finally been connected to the electricity grid.
The plant is a thermal energy storage system. In addition to stabilizing the electricity grid, it serves as the main generation plant for the district heating grid in Pornainen, Finland.
It provides 1 MW of thermal power and has a storage capacity of 100 MWh.
It is 10 times larger than the one Polar Night Energy built in 2022. Construction took about 1 year and involved more than 100 workers.
(Polar Night Energy commissioned the world’s first sand battery in 2022 with 200 kW of heating power and 8 MWh of storage capacity, and it is still in operation).
The plant will completely eliminate the use of oil in the heating grid and reduce wood chip consumption by around 60%. Emissions will be reduced by 70%, avoiding 160 tons of CO2 emissions per year.
How does it work?
Its participation in the electricity market and when it will charge is optimized with artificial intelligence and works automatically. While charging, it uses electricity to heat the sand. The heat generated during discharge is used to heat the district where it is located.
Physical Size
The steel-coated sand battery with a diameter of 15 meters and a height of 13 meters was filled with crushed soapstone, a by-product of fireplace production. A total of 2,000 tons of soapstone will be used in this facility, which is equivalent to the weight of about 1,000 fireplaces made of soapstone.