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I wasn't suggesting that a turbine could be used (directly) for sand, I hope you didn't get that impression, I was just trying to address that commenter's point of confusion about generators and turbines.
To your question, a flow is cause by a difference in energy potentials between two connected points in a system; Potential energy causes the gas or liquid to flow through a turbine. The more potential energy, the higher the speed, or pressure (depending). Also, not all turbines drive generators. The output could drive anything where you need rotational input, including a vehicle's transmission. For a lot of reasons, that isn't usually done.
If I understand correctly, the idea is to store something heavy up top, send it down below using the weight of the sand to somehow (unspecified?) generate electricity, then send it back up when there is an excess supply of energy generation, leaving it available to use again when energy production is reduced. Battery really describes this system better than generator, because it's only a hole in which to dump excess energy and then pull it out (which, in a roundabout turn of events, the "hole" in this instance is above ground, and then you "pull it out" of the hole by sending it back down.).
All that said, this seems like a boondoggle. I think there's a lot in this press release that is unsatisfactory, and I'm extremely skeptical that this makes good sense until I see definitive independent proof otherwise.
I’m going to preface this by saying, all I know is that know about the subject was one physics class in college… The teacher mentioned Hydro Pump Storage that pumps water into a reservoir when there is an excess of energy generation then releases it through turbines when there is a surge is energy needs on the grid. Wouldn’t this idea work in a very similar way? If so it would seem feasible as about 15% of the UKs STOR requirements are met in this way.
https://www.nationalgrid.com/sites/default/files/documents/STOR%20%20Fuel%20Type%20Analysis%20Summary%20%28By%20Capacity%29%20-%20Season%208.5%20-%20Final_0.pdf
https://www.sse.com/news-and-views/2023/03/britain-s-largest-pumped-hydro-scheme-in-40-years-gets-100m-investment-boost/
Yeah, I was imagining it would probably work better with water instead. Sand can't be pumped (or turbined lol), and I noticed those many enormous trucks carting the sand around underground which seems to introduce an enormous efficiency loss to the system. Good to see the fundamental concept works well in practice, thank you.
Yeh, again I’m not sure how efficient using water is but my instinct says it will be a lot better than any mechanical system as they are generally very inefficient!