Finnish Metropolis Inaugurates 1 MW/100 MWh Sand Battery

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There are extra methods to retailer vitality than simply utilizing batteries. Some are utilizing fireplace bricks, notably for course of warmth for industries that depend on excessive warmth in manufacturing. Others suggest an association of huge concrete blocks that transfer up and down just like the weights of a large grandfather clock, changing kinetic vitality to potential vitality and again once more. In Finland, two intrepid engineers started experimenting with a sand battery a number of years in the past.

As we reported when the primary prototype was unveiled three years in the past, the thought of a sand battery started with two Finnish engineers, Markku Ylönen and Tommi Eronen. The idea is simplicity itself. Make a very huge pile of sand. Warmth it with extra renewable electrical energy to round 500°C (932°F), then use that warmth later to warmth properties, factories, even swimming swimming pools. They are saying the sand can keep sizzling for 3 months or extra. The pair have based Polar Evening Vitality, which constructed a prototype consisting of 100 tons of sand inside what appears like a silo within the city of Kankaanpää.

Many Individuals are unfamiliar with the idea of district heating, however it’s extensively utilized in different counties, particularly in Scandinavia the place retaining faculties, municipal buildings, arenas, factories, and houses heat in winter is a problem.

Loviisan Lämpö is a Finnish district heating firm that provides district heating to prospects in Loviisa, Pukkila, Pornainen, and Pyhtää. It has collaborated with Polar Evening on a brand new sand battery — one that’s a lot bigger than the prototype — which started working within the metropolis of Pornainen in southern Finland this month, the place it’s anticipated to cut back carbon emissions from district heating by 70 p.c.

Beforehand, nearly all of warmth wanted for the system got here from burning oil, however that has now been utterly eradicated. The system will proceed to burn wooden chips to complement the sand battery. Wooden chips are a minimum of carbon impartial, though not a super resolution because it takes years for timber to develop however solely minutes for the chips to burn.

On the commissioning ceremony for the brand new battery, Mikko Paajanen, CEO of Loviisan Lämpö, mentioned, “A few years in the past, we began contemplating easy methods to take district heating in Pornainen to the subsequent stage. It could have been straightforward to easily exchange the previous wooden chip energy plant with a brand new one of many similar sort, however that didn’t align with our targets. We evaluated each potential various, and the Sand Battery proved to be the best choice.”

The battery is a 42 foot tall, 50 foot broad metal cylinder stuffed with 2,000 tons of crushed stone. In accordance with Quick Firm, when additional renewable electrical energy is accessible, the system makes use of it to warmth up the crushed stone, the place it’s saved till wanted. Then the warmth from the battery travels to different buildings via a system of pipes stuffed with sizzling water. Every constructing has its personal tools to distribute the warmth to radiators, flooring heaters, or different heating units.

“Now we have already learnt that our system has much more potential than we initially calculated. It’s been a constructive shock,” mentioned Ylönen after the prototype was positioned in service. “Each time there’s a excessive surge of obtainable inexperienced electrical energy, we wish to have the ability to get it into the storage actually shortly.” The necessity to use vitality extra correctly was pushed house for Finns after Russia stopped offering electrical energy, methane, and oil to Finland when it voted to affix NATO. Finland and Russia share a standard border.

Sand Battery Is Easy & Environment friendly

The sand battery is simplicity itself. “We simply warmth air and [circulate it] via sand,” says Liisa Naskali, COO of Polar Evening Vitality. However supplies aside from sand can be utilized. The brand new battery truly makes use of crushed soapstone chips from an area fire producer. Sand, or different materials crushed into sand-size particles, has the power to retailer warmth for weeks. In contrast to another batteries, the system doesn’t depend on chemical substances, doesn’t degrade, and received’t catch on fireplace. In operation, the sand battery has demonstrated a spherical journey effectivity of 90 p.c.

Contained in the metal tank, a warmth exchanger and a closed loop system are used to flow into the warmth. Software program runs heaters when electrical energy costs are low. Up to now this summer time, the district heating operator has paid solely about 10 p.c of the typical value of electrical energy as a result of heating the system solely occurred at optimum instances. That helps make the expertise value aggressive, though the preliminary set up value is pretty excessive.

Polar Evening is now in talks with different district heating corporations and manufacturing unit house owners with a necessity for top temperature course of warmth. For the corporate, the undertaking in Pornainen is a important proof level. “That is actually essential for us as a result of now we will present that this actually works,” a spokesperson for Polar Evening mentioned.

Funding Alternatives

Polar Evening and its companions see a brilliant monetary future for sand batteries as a result of they’ll take part in electrical energy reserve markets, cut back dependence on single vitality sources in warmth manufacturing, and function a wonderful instance of sector integration between electrical energy and warmth.

“For us, the sand battery is a good industrial funding, however we additionally needed to boldly assist an revolutionary resolution that advantages prospects, the municipality, and the complete electrical energy market. It is a concrete instance of a value environment friendly and sustainable funding. If it really works right here, it is going to work wherever,” mentioned Sauli Antila, the funding director at CapMan Infra, the company proprietor of Loviisan Lämpö.

The profitability of the sand battery is predicated on charging it in line with electrical energy costs and Fingrid’s reserve markets. Its massive storage capability permits balancing the electrical energy grid and optimizing consumption over a number of days and even weeks. The reserve market operations and optimization of the Pornainen Sand Battery are managed by the software program unit division of Elisa Industriq.

“The Pornainen plant may be adjusted shortly and exactly, and it additionally has a remarkably lengthy vitality buffer, making it effectively fitted to reserve market optimization. Our AI resolution mechanically identifies one of the best instances to cost and discharge the Sand Battery and allocates flexibility capability to the reserve merchandise that want it most. Steady optimization makes it a genuinely worthwhile funding,” defined Jukka-Pekka Salmenkaita, vp of AI and particular tasks at Elisa Industriq.

Polar Evening has a transparent imaginative and prescient for the longer term. Development of an electrical energy manufacturing pilot will start within the coming weeks in Valkeakoski, Finland, and the corporate is in lively negotiations for a number of large-scale thermal storage tasks in district heating, sizzling air, and course of steam manufacturing. “Industrial purposes are notably promising, particularly the place warmth above 100°C is required, one thing electrical boilers and warmth pumps can not present,” mentioned Polar Evening COO Liisa Naskali.

This expertise is rarely going to exchange grid-scale battery storage, however might be helpful in lots of conditions the place battery storage isn’t. A touch upon the YouTube video beneath complained, “Not a phrase about return on funding within the presentation. Which means it’ll by no means repay. They only wasted taxpayers’ cash to stroke their very own egos.” MAGAlomaniacs are in every single place as of late.