Just posted to my Forbes column about a surprisingly simple idea that could play a big role in cutting emissions: storing energy in sand.
The piece looks at a massive “sand battery” in Finland that stores 100 megawatt-hours of energy by heating sand and holding that heat until it’s needed. It’s already helping a small town slash carbon emissions by 70% while lowering energy costs, thanks to the ability to store cheap renewable power and use it later for heating. What’s especially interesting is how something so low-tech in concept can compete with, and even outperform, traditional heating systems in efficiency.
“The genius part is how you make the warmth concentrate and stay in the sand,” as one project leader put it. That simplicity could be exactly what makes it scalable, especially as even larger versions are already on the way.