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Sand battery: Finland's answer to a renewable energy headache

28 points by coderintherye

by euroderf

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In Finland in summer you can have around 20 hours of sunlight per day, so there's a lot of energy free for the taking. But could this tech work affordably at the level of individual properties (homes, apartment blocks) ? Could it be scaled down ?
And well, if you can have a heat battery then why not a cold battery too ? Winter cold spells in southern Finland can hang at around -20C (subzero F), so you could store that for summer use.
Years ago there was a meme that when Helsinki's snow removal created giant piles of the stuff ("lumikasat"), sometimes a pile lasted thru the summer - greatly diminished, but extant. It was a fun meme but then it disappeared from the mediascape: maybe the city thought it was bad PR for tourism.

by helsinkiandrew

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Related: using the excess heat from data centres in district heating:
https://northwiseproject.com/nbis-stock-mantsala-data-center...

by MrDrMcCoy

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I heard a long time ago about using molten salt heated by solar mirrors for something like this, but the corrosiveness of the salt proved to be challenging. I wonder if these two technologies could be combined...

by kamranjon

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This does seem like a prett niche solution because the electricity is converted into heat and then just used directly as heating - which removes a lot of the utility of electricity.
It is a great solution for places where heating is the primary use of electricity and I hope it finds broader applications.

by jamesbelchamber

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by ktallett

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This seems of particular use in countries with extreme winter conditions such as Russia, Canada, etc. I would like to see this catching on for those with communal heating systems which are common all over Russia and Eastern Europe/Central Asia.

by aaron695

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