Finland

Finnish smartphone brand Jolla isn't in the business of competing with the dizzying array of Android handsets out there. In fact, it took a long break before announcing its latest model – but from the sound of things, it might be worth the wait.

Finnish tire brand Nokian has launched a winter tire that features studs which deploy only when it's cold out – so they bite into the ice and give you better traction. It's all thanks to a proprietary 3-layer construction technology.

Finland has inaugurated a giant sand battery this week in the southern town of Pornainen, where it'll take over heating duties from an old woodchip power plant. It's set to reduce carbon emissions from the local heating network by 70%.

An energy supplier in Finland has announced the upcoming construction of an underground seasonal thermal energy storage facility about the size of two Madison Square Gardens that could meet the heating demands of a medium-sized city for up to a year.

A new industrial-scale “sand battery” has been announced for Finland, packing 1 MW of power and a capacity of up to 100 MWh of thermal energy for use during those cold polar winters. The new battery will be 10 times bigger than a prior pilot plant.

This holiday season, shoppers in Helsinki are getting a little help to ease their gift-buying burden. When they place an online order from a select retailer, a wheeled HeRo robot will deliver their purchase to their home within an hour.

Callboats has become the first company in the world to offer autonomous water taxi rides between the Finnish city of Helsinki and a nearby archipelago. These solar-charged electric boats aim to drastically cut prices and address a captain shortage.

Polar Night Energy says it's developed and commercialized a super-cheap, super-simple way of storing energy for anywhere between hours and months, simply using heated sand. Its first 8-megawatt-hour thermal battery has gone online in Finland.

An ambitious new project could provide Helsinki with a sustainable source of heat and double as an attractive place for Fins to escape winter. Hot Heart envisions a series of manmade islands that store thermal energy and offer places for recreation.

After spending five years searching for the ideal location, Aleksi Hautamäki and Milla Selkimaki have successfully built two off-grid cabins on their very own private island, located at the edge of the Archipelago National Park in Southwest Finland.

The recently opened Glass Resort at Snowman World​ in Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland, hosts a series of glass-roofed cabins, providing the ideal spot to snuggle up and enjoy the night skies and, if you're lucky, the aurora borealis.

Finnish electric motorcycle startup RMK has sent us some photos of its completed E2 prototype, as well as performance figures and details on some of the expected features. Notable for its very cool hubless rear wheel drive, the E2 is shaping up to be a fun and sporty machine.