Are There Sand Batteries In UK?

28th August 2024

Yes, there are sand batteries in the UK. In January 2024, Polar Night Energy, a Finnish company, partnered with Ilmatar, a Nordic energy company, to pilot their sand battery technology in the UK.

The goal of the partnership is to improve the profitability of wind and solar power, promote innovation in energy storage, and provide commercial piloting opportunities on wind farms.

Sand batteries are made of low-grade sand and use resistive heating to charge the sand with heat from cheap electricity, such as solar or wind power.

The sand can store heat at around 500°C for months, and when energy prices are higher, the battery can discharge the hot air to warm water for district heating systems. The water can then be pumped to homes, offices, and even swimming pools.

Some say that sand batteries could help solve the problem of year-round supply, which is a major issue for green energy. A sand battery with a one gigawatt hour (gWh) capacity could provide heat to 30,417 UK homes every day, and the average UK home uses 12,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of heat per year.

Big sand battery to store wind and solar energy using crushed soapstone