Finland has inaugurated the world’s largest sand battery, a thermal storage system of 1 MW/100 MWh developed by Polar Night Energy. The unit is already greater than efficiency goals.
Finland inaugurated the world’s largest sand battery this week, a thermal storage system of 1 MW/100 MWh developed by Polar Night Energy.
The unity on an industrial scale in pornen started working in June after the Loviisan Lämpö district heating company ordered it. The company now uses the sand battery as the most important production facility in the district heating network.
Polar Night Energy said that the battery has paid the expectations in the first months and has exceeded guaranteed efficiency goals. It has replaced the old Woodchip plant of the area throughout the summer.
A sand battery stores clean electricity as heat in sand or other solid materials. The pornin unit is almost 13 meters long and 15 meters wide, supplies 1 MW of thermal capacity, offers 100 MWh storage and contains approximately 2,000 tons of ground soapstone.
Polar Night Energy said that the battery can participate in the markets for electricity reserve, according to the electricity prices and the reserve market signals from Fingrid. The storage capacity makes it possible for consumption to be optimized for days or weeks and helps to balance the grid.
The Finnish Milieu Sari Multala Minister said that thermal storage improves the flexibility of the energy system and reduces industrial emissions.
“Energy storage plays an important role in the energy transition, in which burning -based production is phased out and society goes to carbon neutrality,” Multala said. “The pornin sand battery is a good example of how the clean transition can be demanded by the electrification of district heating networks.”
Polar Night Energy is negotiating on various large -scale thermal storage projects for district heating, hot air and process -making production. Chief Operating Officer Liisa Naskali said that industrial applications are promising, especially when heat above 100 ° C is required – further than what electric boilers and heat pumps can offer.
The company is also planning to build a pilot project in the coming weeks to test its power-to-heat-to-power sand battery technology.
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