Researchers in Finland installed the first fully-functioning "sand battery" that can store renewable energy for months. They believe it could solve the country's year-round crisis in power supply, which is a major issue for green energy.
The team used low-grade sand that charges the devices with heat from cheap electricity coming from either solar or wind energy. The sand battery can store energy and heat up to 500 degrees Celsius, which can be used to warm homes during winter when electricity is more expensive, BBC News reported.
Sand Battery: A Cost-Effective Way of Storing Power
Finland relies on Russia for gas, but the war in Ukraine has drawn the issue of renewable energy into sharp focus. As the country decided to join NATO, Moscow decided to halt its gas and electricity supplies to Finland.
That exacerbated concerns over sources of heat and light, especially with the long cold Finnish winter on the horizon. Finnish scientists have found a way in the corner of a small power plant in western Finland where they installed a technology that can store energy for months. Its key elements include around 100 tons of builder's sand piled high inside a dull gray silo.
These rough grains represent a cost-effective power storage system when needed the most, especially since there is a surge of investment in renewable energy production. Solar panels and wind turbines provide green power but also present challenges like most renewable energy.
Adding large-scale batteries that can store and balance energy demands while making the grid greener is essential. Batteries today are usually made up of lithium and are expensive. They also have large physical footprint. However, the world's first sand battery installed in the town of Kankaanpää by young Finnish engineers is believed to be the answer to these concerns.
It was installed in the Vatajankoski power plant that runs the heating system for the houses in the area. It works by heating the sand, circulating the heat generated in the sand using a heat exchanger.
It is a cost-effective method because when the battery discharges the hot air, it warms the water for the district heating system that is pumped around homes, offices, and the local swimming pool.
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Sand-Based Batteries Last Longer Than Other Batteries
Using sand to store energy has indeed caught the attention of scientists for many years. Even the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is actively researching the viable sand to make a battery for green power.
Besides, there have been studies in the past years about using sand-based batteries that could last longer than conventional ones. According to a 2014 study published in Scientific Reports, researchers extracted silicon using quartz-rich sand to create a battery that lasts three times longer than lithium-ion batteries.
They created a coin-sized battery that uses silicon at its anode (negative side) instead of the over-used graphite, ZME Science reported. UC Riverside graduate student Zachary Favors said he drew inspiration from the beach sand during a vacation. He found a quartz-rich site at the Cedar Creek Reservoir in Texas and took some samples to study them.
He and some engineering professors milled the sand until it became nanosized before introducing granules and filtered them until it looked like powdered sugar. The purified quartz was then mixed with ground salt and magnesium and was heated. The resulting silicon product is porous and yet an ideal material as an anode because it has more surface area that allows lithium ions to travel quicker and close the circuit.
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