General Fusion Inc. has secured C$20 million ($14.6 million) from Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and the Business Development Bank of Canada to advance its fusion technology, aiming to demonstrate the feasibility of its Lawson Machine 26 by next year.
Fusion companies are seeing significant growth, despite steep technical hurdles to overcome before this technology can deliver energy at scale, a new report finds.
The fusion industry has now attracted over $7.1bn of investment, according to an annual report by the Fusion Industry Association (FIA), with over $900 million of new funds backing the technology since last year. As part of that, total public funding increased by 57% in the last 12 months to $426m, showing governments increasingly see public-private partnerships as central to making commercial fusion a reality.
The United Kingdom is a world leader in fusion energy – a source of potentially unlimited strategically secure and affordable, low-carbon energy. Once commercialised, fusion is perhaps the ultimate energy source: zero carbon at the point of generation, energy dense, and with abundant fuels. As the UK general election draws closer, the Fusion Industry Association is delighted to have worked with The Fusion Cluster to lay out the importance of the fusion sector to the UK and issue key asks of incoming Parliamentarians and Ministers. Commercial fusion’s contributions to energy security, the economy, and to science & innovation represent a huge and imminent opportunity.
The global race to commercial fusion power is on. On June 24, the Fusion Industry Association launched our Commercializing Fusion Energy paper, laying out the policy incentives that will attract and accelerate the fusion industry in nations that aim to lead in commercial deployment. This paper is intended to be used as a tool by policymakers when considering the most effective policy positions to implement.
The U.S. Department of Energy has launched an innovative initiative Fusion Innovation Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives to establish collaborative networks that bridge the gap between fusion research and industry.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a Request for Information (RFI) on a proposed Fusion Energy Public-Private Consortium Framework (PPCF). The PPCF aims to build on other initiatives within the U.S. Fusion Strategy, including the Milestone Program and FIRE Collaboratives, to catalyze partnerships to accelerate fusion commercialization.
Xcimer has secured $100 million in Series A funding to build a prototype laser system for inertial fusion. This round of investing will support the establishment of a new facility in Denver. This new funding aims to push Xcimer closer to commercializing fusion power.
On March 12, the Energy Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee held a Congressional hearing on “Bridging the Valley of Death: ARPA-E’s Role in Developing Breakthrough Technologies”. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) program has helped accelerate the development of a multitude of breakthrough technologies, including fusion energy.