File photo of Helion Energy’s Polaris prototype | Photo Credit: Helion Energy
Private US nuclear fusion company Helion Energy will provide electricity to Microsoft over about five years, the companies said on Wednesday, in the first such deal for the power source that fuels the sun but has been elusive on Earth.
There are government labs and more than 30 companies the race to power fusion, which could one day help the world reduce emissions linked to climate change. Unlike today’s fission reactors, it could generate electricity without producing long-lasting radioactive waste.
Fusion occurs when two light atoms, such as hydrogen, heated to extreme temperatures, fuse into one heavy atom, releasing a large amount of energy. So far, terrestrial fusion reactions have been transient and suck in more energy than they release, but companies seeking to reap the net energy gains have raised nearly $5 billion in private funding.
Helion’s plant is expected to be online by 2028 and will target 50 MW or more of power generation after a one-year ramp-up period. One megawatt can supply about 1,000 American homes on a typical day.
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“Fifty megawatts is a great first step in commercial-scale fusion, and the revenue helps us develop more power plants and get fusion on the grid as quickly as possible in the United States and internationally,” David Kirtley, Washington the founder and CEO of state-based Helion said in an interview.
Polaris, Helion’s seventh-generation machine, should come online next year and demonstrate power generation using a mix of laser and magnet technologies to achieve fusion, Kirtley said. In 2021, Helion is slated to be the first private company to achieve 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit) and that is nearly double the optimum temperature for fusion, Kirtley said.
While many fusion companies are looking to tritium, a rare hydrogen isotope, to help fuel reactions, Helion plans to use helium 3, a rare type of gas used in quantum computing.
Helion has raised more than $570 million in private capital to date, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman providing $375 million in 2021.
Brad Smith, vice president and president of Microsoft Corp., said in a news release that Helion’s work “supports our own long-term clean energy goals and leads the market to establish a new, efficient method for bringing more clean energy into the grid.” Will increase. , and faster.”
The companies did not disclose financial or timing details of the power purchase agreement, or whether Microsoft facilities would receive fusion-generated power.
Kimberly Budill, head of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is experimenting with fusion, said last December that a few decades of research and investment could get scientists in a position to build the power plant.
Helion still requires design and construction approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as well as local permits. But the fusion industry was cheered by the NRC’s decision last month to separate fusion regulation from fission, a move proponents say could shorten timelines for license approval.
Andrew Holland, head of the Fusion Industry Association, said nothing about fusion has been easy and that power purchase contracts are likely to have clauses regarding the timing of delivery of power. But he said the deal shows that trust is growing.
Holland said in an interview, “The business world is beginning to understand that fusion is coming and probably sooner than many people think.” “It is a vote of confidence that Hellion is on its way, as other companies are now building their proof-of-concept machines.”