Finland Sunshine Energy Storage Lithium Battery

HT Finland has activated the world's largest sand battery in Pornainen, storing excess renewable energy as heat to power an entire town's heating needs. The system cuts heating emissions by nearly 70%, using soapstone as a low-cost, long-duration thermal storage medium.

The world's largest sand battery is online and ready to make the most of Finland's renewable energy. Once fully operational, this giant device is expected to cut carbon-equivalent emissions from the local heating network by about 160 tons each year, slashing the district's heating emissions by nearly 70 percent.

From backyard brainstorms to international headlines, Finland's sand battery movement is proving that sometimes the simplest materials can offer the smartest solutions. Finland's sand battery stores renewable energy as heat using crushed soapstone, helping one town slash emissions and eliminate oil from its heating system.

The Pornainen battery isn't Finland's first foray into sandy storage. In 2022, Polar Night Energy launched a smaller prototype in Kankaanpää, just as Russia cut off gas supplies. The timing made a strong case for homegrown, renewable energy solutions. Engineers and co-founders Markku Ylönen and Tommi Eronen came up with the idea in 2018.

It doesn't look like much, but Finland recently flipped the switch on the world's largest sand-based battery. Yes, sand. A sand battery is a type of thermal energy storage system that uses sand or crushed rock to store heat. Electricity — typically from renewable sources — is used to heat the sand.

An energy company has commissioned the world's first industrial-scale sand battery in a town in Finland, where it will use surplus renewable energy to generate heat which will then be supplied to the local district heating network.