2022 A.D.E. SINCE TIME BEGAN : Caveat : Forward Thinking Statement : ICG LTD & ASSOCIATES IN BUSINESS SINCE 1960 : Informed Consent Doctrine : Caveat : IN TRUTH WE TRUST : 2022 A.D.E.
SQYX PUBLICATION : ICG - LOE LTD GROUP
HOW FUSION CREATES PLASMA ENERGY
TOTAL HYDROGEN VOLUME IN EARTH'S SEAS AND OCEANS
Addendum : Message To UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres : Addendum
FORBES
: MELANIE
WINDRIDGE : Jul 14, 2022
Investment in
private fusion companies has more than doubled in the past year and eight new
companies have been founded, bringing the total to around 33.
Alongside this, new technology companies such as
Kyoto Fusioneering in Japan are stepping up to support power plant development.
A survey of private fusion energy companies launched
today states that fusion companies declared more than $4.8bn of funding, up by
139% on last year. For the first time, private investment into fusion energy
has outstripped government funding.
Section of the
cover of the Fusion Industry Association's new report.
FUSION INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION
The Global
Fusion Industry in 2022 is the second annual survey from
the Fusion
Industry Association (FIA), this year supported by Trinomics as
part of a European Commission-funded study on fusion energy development
worldwide. The survery aims to build a directory of fusion energy businesses
and provide a periodic update on the sector. This year, 33 private companies
developing commercial fusion took part - up from 23 last year - including all
of the industry’s most advanced players.
Eight new fusion companies have been founded
since the last report, a sign of the industry’s rapid growth and investor confidence.
Six companies have now each raised over $200m in total, with notable
investments in the last year including over $1.8 billion for Commonwealth
Fusion Systems and $500m for Helion Energy, allowing them to develop pilot
plants to demonstrate fusion electricity.
The huge step up in
investment, coupled with increasing government support for fusion in the U.K.
and the U.S., is increasing confidence within the fusion industry.
The U.K. has included fusion in their recent Energy Security Bill and will be the
first country in the world to legislate on the framework by which to regulate
it. The U.S. has committed to funding public-private partnerships in line with
their Bold Decadal Vision set out in March this
year.
Andrew Holland, Chief Executive Officer of
the Fusion Industry Association, states in the report, “We must not see a
‘competition’ between publicly funded and privately funded fusion approaches;
instead, we must build real partnerships. As the private sector builds the
power plants, governments will need to build the infrastructure and train the
workforce that enable the fusion energy revolution.”
These moves are
pushing up the confidence around the timescales in which fusion power will
become a reality. More than 93% of the survey respondents—all people working in
private fusion companies—now believe that fusion power will first be on the
grid by the 2030s, up from 83% last year. Moreover, 84% think a fusion plant
will demonstrate a low enough cost and high enough efficiency to be considered
commercially viable in the same timeframe.
The wider industry is stepping up to support these
ambitions. Last week, Kyoto Fusioneering, a technology start-up
founded in 2019 and focused on developing advanced technologies for commercial
fusion reactors, announced the construction of an integrated testing facility
for fusion power plant equipment, which aims to demonstrate electricity
generation using fusion relevant technologies in 2024.
The new facility,
named UNITY: Unique Integrated Testing Facility, will test
both the heat extraction and fuel cycle systems required for fusion power
plants in a single facility.
Kyoto Fusioneering is the first entity (private
company or government laboratory) in the world to test these reactor technologies
for fusion as an integrated system. It’s an important step because private
fusion companies all aim to demonstrate scientific feasibility in the 2020s,
that is to get more energy out of their fusion reactions than it takes to get
them going (energy gain). To take the next step of building a pilot plant will
require some new and largely untested technologies.
For example, Richard Pearson, Chief Innovator &
U.K. Director of Kyoto Fusioneering, said: “Breeding blankets, which are a
critical path technology for commercial reactors, both for the fuel cycle and
power generation, have never been fabricated for testing at even subsystem
level in anything close to a relevant environment. We will be doing that—and
more—on UNITY.”
UNITY will be the leading platform for testing power
generation systems for private fusion companies, allowing these companies to
focus their resources on fusion power core development.
Alongside the high
growth in the private fusion sector, construction of the largest fusion
experimental device in the world, ITER, is well underway in the South of
France. (See pictures of construction progress on
their website.) This project, a worldwide collaborative effort, is the focus of
the majority of the publicly-funded research effort globally has been a great
stimulus to the fusion supply chain as well as growing the fusion knowledge
base.
Private companies are now building on this base but
hoping to push ahead faster in line with the urgency with which the world needs
long-term clean energy.
The new FIA survey shows that electricity generation
remains the primary market for 85% of fusion players, followed by off grid
energy or hydrogen and clean fuels (each named by 27% of respondents),
highlighting the potential of fusion to produce not just electricity to the
grid but as a way to enable deep decarbonization across the global economy.
“The results of this report show that fusion is on a
pathway towards commercial relevance, at a time when the world desperately
needs new clean energy options,” comments Andrew Holland.
“With investment accelerating, it is increasingly
likely that commercial fusion will become a reality within the next two
decades, providing the basis for prosperity, safety, and security for many
years to come.”
2022 A.D.E. SINCE TIME BEGAN : Caveat : Forward Thinking Statement : ICG LTD & ASSOCIATES IN BUSINESS SINCE 1960 : Informed Consent Doctrine : Caveat : IN TRUTH WE TRUST : 2022 A.D.E.
