Giant 'sand battery' holds a week's heat for a whole town

Re:Giant 'sand battery' holds a week's heat for a whole town by kwhitefoot on Thursday March 14, 2024 @03:27AM (#39701330)

The article points out that it doesn't actually use what people usually think of as sand:

"The sand itself will also be sustainably sourced – it’ll consist of crushed soapstone, which is a manufacturing byproduct of another local industry."

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Giant 'sand battery' holds a week's heat for a whole town by londons_explore on Thursday March 14, 2024 @05:10AM (#39701764)

And this is key to the finances...

Waste material costs over €100/ton to dispose of across most of the EU. So therefore this material costs less than nothing!

That's why the project doesn't use water (which has a 4x higher heat capacity and can be pumped allowing the heat exchangers to be far smaller and eliminating the 'temperature decreases as it discharges' problem).

[ Parent | on HN ]