When I saw the term “sand battery” I thought..
How the #### is that going to work? How can sand be used in a battery?
Reading about it I realised it is a variant of storage heating. The usual media hype providing clickbait.
We’ve had storage heating for decades. Solar panels heating water that is stored in a tank/ heat exchanger, geothermal in places like Iceland, air source/ ground source heat pumps being the latest must have.
There is a lot of overselling in the media for air/ ground heat pumps. New, well insulated buildings are ok but older not so. A bit like solar in that it was a good buy with the high feed in tariffs but the maths very marginal for cost- benefits now. EV ownership and battery storage might help, though.
It is only a matter of time before fuel duty gets transferred to EV’s. smart meter variable costing too.
Covid, Ukraine have highlighted a poor long term strategy for fuel supply with self sufficiency being changed to buy it in.
It takes a “crisis” to refocus the strategic plans to stimulate development and change.
