US periodical Time Magazine has included a Finnish company's "sand battery" on its list of 300 of the most impactful inventions of 2025.
The sand battery was included in the list's green energy category. The company behind the technology is Polar Night Energy. The firm's 'biggest sand battery in the world' is located in Southern Finland's municipality of Pornainen.
In layman's terms, a sand battery stores high-temperature thermal energy collected from solar and wind-generated heat sources that can be used in various applications — including heating buildings.
Yle News' Matthew Schilke reported on the sand battery technology earlier this year. His video about it was shared on Instagram.
"[Time Magazine's] acknowledgment gives us even more energy to push forward in our mission to decarbonize energy production, minimize combustion, and enable the rapid growth of wind and solar power," Polar Night Energy's CEO Tommi Eronen said in a press release.
The firm offered a more detailed description of the technology in its release.
"A sand battery is a high-temperature thermal energy storage system that stores clean, affordable electricity as heat in sand or other solid materials. It provides a sustainable solution to many challenges of the global energy transition, helping to cut emissions and reduce costs across various industrial applications," the company's release read.
