Nuclear fusion has been researched for decades. Many failed predictions thru the years have suggested that commercial nuclear fusion was only twenty years away. Huge technical challenges have prevented the dream from coming true but in the last few years, billions of dollars have been invested in a dozen companies working furiously on practical nuclear fusion around the globe.
Microsoft and Helion Energy of Redmond, Washington announced last Wednesday that they had reached an historic agreement that could pave the way for the world’s first commercial nuclear fusion power plant. Helion is working on building the commercial facility in Washington state. The goal is to put the plant into operation by 2028 which is just five years away.
Nuclear fusion could provide a potentially limitless source of carbon-free power. There are demonstration fusion reactors running or being constructed around the globe. However, none of them, including Helion’s reactors, have been able to produce more energy than they require to operate, let alone produce enough energy to feed into the electrical grid. Some analysts in the energy industry are skeptical that commercial fusion will ever be possible.
If Helion’s fusion reactor design is successful, even though serious technical hurdles remain, it would have massive benefits in the long term as clean energy’s “Holy Grail” is finally achieved.
David Kirtley is the co-founder and CEO of Helion. He said, “This is bigger than just Helion. This shows more broadly that fusion is transitioning from science experiments and science projects demonstrating key physics to now building products and building commercial power plants.”
Helion and Microsoft have signed a power purchase agreement in which Microsoft agrees to purchase electricity from the fusion startup once the facility is generating significant amounts of electricity. Microsoft needs clean electricity to fuel the operations of its more than two hundred energy-hungry data centers around the world. Up to this point, Microsoft has relied primarily on wind and solar power. These sources have serious limitations because the wind does not always blow, and the sun does not always shine.
Brad Smith is vice chair and president of Microsoft. He issued a statement which read, “Helion’s announcement supports our own long term clean energy goals and will advance the market to establish a new, efficient method for bringing more clean energy to the grid, faster.”
The fusion energy market includes companies across the globe. Helion, Zap Energy, Avalanche and General Fusion are all headquartered in the Pacific Northwest. All of these companies have raised significant amounts of money from notable venture capitalists. Helion’s investors include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. Other startups have support from Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
Scott Hsu is the U.S. Department of Energy senior advisor and lead fusion coordinator. He cheered the technology’s potential for lowering costs and providing secure energy globally. International experts warn that humanity needs to slash carbon pollution in the next quarter-century to avoid the worst climate change scenarios.
Hsu said, “Fusion energy has incredible potential to empower people all over the world,” Hsu said by email. “If commercial fusion energy becomes available by the end of this decade, it could ease all the various possible pathways to [carbon] net-zero by 2050.”