Finland has inaugurated an industrial-scale sand battery this week in the southern town of Pornainen, where it'll take over heating duties from an old woodchip power plant for the municipality. It's set to reduce carbon emissions from the local heating network by as much as 70%, and is the largest…
I’m not knocking the tech, I’m criticising the article for getting the terminology completely wrong. Moreso, the manufacturer has even fewer excuses.
Maybe there’s a language thing here, but in English battery is not the appropriate term for this. “Battery” really refers to just a bank of some multiple of something. Originally it was naval weapons and then in electrics it was multiple cells of electrolyte. An electric battery is a specific type of energy storage, this is a different type: thermal energy storage or TES.
Hell, on the grid you don’t even refer to battery electric storage as batteries that much, the common term is BESS - Battery Energy Storage System.
Yes, I totally agree, when talking about these thermal batteries, it should always be made clear.
When Converting heat MWh(t) to electricity MWh(e) is pretty much 2/3 loss in the process, i.e. turbine, and it must be super heated vapor meaning like 800C°.
Edit: But to be clear, they are called heat batteries, even in English.
They’re called batteries, but they’re not batteries, by definition. They’re called batteries mainly for marketing, I imagine.
However on the grid in English speaking countries they will refer to them differently. Probably TES or TESS, as it goes nicely with BESS (Battery Energy Storage System), which is the common industry name for grid scale electric batteries. Furthermore, in that sector it’s necessary to have clear distinction, as different types of generation have different characteristics.
Source: am HV electrical engineer.