Vatajankosken Sähkö and Polar Night Energy Are Planning to Build the First Commercial Sand-based Heat Storage in the World (that we know of)

Vatajankosken Sähkö and Polar Night Energy have signed a preliminary agreement to construct a sand-based heat storage with 100 kW heating power and 8 MWh capacity. It would provide heat for Vatajankoski’s district heating network in Kankaanpää, Finland.

Vatajankosken Sähkö and Polar Night Energy have agreed on co-operation related to the construction and operation of a sand based high temperature heat storage based on Polar Night Energy’s patented technology.

The storage would be placed on Vatajankoski’s power plant area and it would provide heat for Vatajankoski’s district heating network in Kankaanpää, Finland.

– The goal is to provide heat efficiently and with a minimal carbon footprint to the end-users and at the same time demonstrate the new heat storage technology at a real operating environment, says Polar Night Energy’s CTO Markku Ylönen.

Vatajankoski has a long experience of acting in the energy market and they are actively developing their energy production portfolio towards a 100% sustainable future. They are happy to co-operate with Polar Night Energy in testing and validating the first-of-a-kind high temperature heat storage unit as a part of their energy network.

– We need heat provided by the storage to prime the waste heat recovered from our data servers before feeding the waste heat into the district heating network, says Vatajankoski’s Managing Director Pekka Passi.

Final contract negotiations are underway, and according to preliminary plans, the plant will be connected to the heating grid in Kankaanpää in autumn 2021.