Powering tomorrow Navigating the energy transition landscape 2024 - Flipbook - Page 22
Significant
developments in
fusion energy
Fusion energy, the process that powers
the sun and stars, has long been viewed
as the “holy grail” of energy production,
with the promise to produce immense
amounts of clean energy, but has long
proved elusive for researchers and
developers, especially getting at least as
much, if not more, energy out of the
reaction than went in to making it—
what is known as “breakeven” fusion.
Scientists and engineers have made signi昀椀cant
developments recently, which serve as major
steps in the quest to harness fusion energy.
In 2022, the United States (U.S.) Department
of Energy (DOE) announced that the National
Ignition Facility (NIF) in California produced a
fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain.
In addition to government projects, a
commercial fusion industry has also emerged
—with investor and customer interest driven
by both fusion’s immense potential and
signi昀椀cant technical milestones in recent
years. Among other things, investment in
fusion exceeded US$6 billion in 2022 in
just the U.S. alone, and in September 2023,
the UK government invested £650 million
in fusion projects. The mid-2020s is an
important timeframe for fusion. Among the
announced anticipated commercial project
technical milestones, currently, U.S. company
Helion Energy, anticipates that its 7th
generation prototype—Polaris—is expected
to demonstrate net positive electricity to
the grid, and Commonwealth Fusion
Systems announced that its next prototype—
SPARC—is expected to demonstrate net
positive electricity.
Fusion developments around the world
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Widespread investment in fusion is driven
by technological milestones and concrete
partnerships and agreements. In 2023, Helion
signed the 昀椀rst power purchase agreement
(PPA) with Microsoft for a 50 MW fusion
power plant—the 昀椀rst fusion PPA in the world—
as well as a deal with Nucor to use a 500 MW
plant to decarbonize the industrial sector.
Chambers U.S., 2023
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