> you can't compare heat storage to electricity, because you can't directly use heat for anything else other than for heating

You can use heat to generate steam that can spin turbines to perform work. But, I am not sure if it’s practical to generate steam from a sand battery, my background is in electrical construction. I’m guessing the sand battery isn’t nearly as hot as a natural gas steam boiler’s combustion chamber.

https://www.johnsoncontrols.com/en_sg/hvac-equipment/chiller...