Privately funded fusion research - A faster way to fusion energy?

by Tomas Linden (Helsinki U)

Tuesday 31 Jan 2023, 11:15 → 12:15 Europe/Stockholm

There has been privately funded fusion research since about twenty years, but the number of companies has grown during this time from a few to about thirty. In the last few years the amount of total funding to privately funded fusion companies has increased significantly. In 2021 Helion Energy received 0.5 GUSD and Commonwealth Fusion Systems got 1.8 GUSD in funding. Zap Energy is currently running the experiment they aim to demonstrate Q=1 with and other companies are building their next devices with similar goals. A new feature is that traditional energy companies are also funding fusion research and development. According to surveys conducted by the Fusion Industry Association in 2021 and 2022 most private fusion companies expect fusion energy production to start in the 2030:s. In this talk an overview of a few of these fusion companies is presented.