this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2026
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Finland’s radical answer to renewable energy’s biggest headache: The world’s largest sand battery (www.cnbc.com)
submitted 4 weeks ago by sanitation@lemmy.today to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] Flower@sh.itjust.works 10 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

You need district heating for this to work. Not every place has that, so it's costly to install in places. You could use it to generate electricity, but then there are losses in the conversion.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 8 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

I'd wager most places in Finland have district heating. Certainly true of Estonia and Finland is even further north.

Now individual homes here in Estonia usually aren't connected to district heating, and not all apartment buildings are, but most are and more are joining because it turns out maintaining your own heating system is a burden most buildings don't want to deal with (nobody usually even wants to head the association)

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 6 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

For Finland, 46% of heating is done with district heating, with it being as high as 90% in the bigger cities.

[–] Flower@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Germany: ~15%

France: ~6–8%

Netherlands: ~5–7%

USA: <1%

[–] variaatio@nord.pub 3 points 4 weeks ago

yeah, well usually district heating is a thing in places where heating is major energy consumer. Russia, Nordic countries, Canada and so on.

More temperate places don't have district heating, since the heating need isn't intense enough to warrant it.

The network is expensive to build, but the vast economies of scale make the actual on going heating more efficient and cheaper. Whatever the heating source might be. Be it fuel burning boiler or industrial scale heat pumps.