Elisa to optimise 100MWh Sand Battery in Finnish reserve markets

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The technology heats a sand, soapstone or other sand-like storage medium using electricity, which it then discharges as heat energy, for either industrial or district heating with a much lower carbon footprint. Technology provider Polar Night Energy is exploring electricity-to-heat-to-electricity applications, but so far the projects have been for heating as an end use.

For the 1MW/100MWh project, Elisa will optimise the Sand Battery’s charging profiles in order to maximise revenues in Finland’s electricity reserve markets.

During times of excess renewable energy production from solar and wind, Finland’s transmission system operator (TSO) will pay the project to increase its charging from the grid. When production is lower, Elisa will reduce the Sand Battery’s charging activity.

“Elisa’s role in the project is significant, as reserve market revenues will ensure that the Sand Battery is profitable. Elisa is a strong player in the reserve markets with a great track record”, says Mikko Paajanen, CEO of Loviisan Lämpö.

Elisa runs telecommunications networks and also recently launched its own distributed energy storage (DES) software solution, primarily targeted at telecoms network-sited BESS. The company uses a lot of electricity itself, so over time has developed solutions to optimise that electricity use and participate in reserve markets.

The 1MW/100MWh Sand Battery is undergoing electrical, piping and equipment installation work and testing will begin in the spring for a commissioning in early summer, Elisa said.

Private equity firm Partners Group has invested in ‘green flexibility’, a BESS platform in Germany, with an initial equity commitment of €400 million.

Executives from investor Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners discussed its three BESS projects in Scotland totalling 1.5GW/3GWh which have all now reached FID, the largest BESS in Europe to do so.

Chinese multinational renewable energy solutions provider Envision Energy will supply a 320MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) to Juniper Green Energy in India.

Global solar developer Lightsource bp and Acen Australia have seen each of their respective solar-plus-storage projects in New South Wales, Australia, totalling 550MW of generation capacity, progress.

At the end of 2024, Australian renewable energy developer ZEN Energy, in partnership with Taiwan’s HD Renewable Energy (HDRE), announced plans to establish a joint venture in Australia that will target 1GW of energy storage capacity.