Sand Battery

Why in news?

• Finland has installed the world’s first fully working "sand battery" in its town called Kankaanpaa capable of storing green power for months at a time. The batteries can also solve the issue of year-round supply.

About Sand Battery:

• A “sand battery” is a high temperature thermal energy storage that uses sand or sand-like materials as its storage medium.
• It stores energy in sand as heat.
• Its main purpose is to work as a high-power and high-capacity reservoir for excess wind and solar energy. The energy is stored as heat, which can be used to heat homes, or to provide hot steam and high temperature process heat to industries that are often fossil-fuel dependent.

Why sand?

• Sand is a very effective medium for retaining heat over a long period, storing power for months at a time.

How the Sand Battery works?

PRACTICE QUESTION:

World's first commercial-scale sand battery was recently launched in which of the following country?

(a) Japan

(b) Finland

(c) Australia

(d) Israel

Answer