By Greg Ryan – Senior Reporter, Boston Business Journal
For decades, scientists have chased the limitless zero-carbon energy promised by fusion. Now, Devens-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems plans to build the world’s first grid-scale commercial fusion power plant in Virginia.
The announcement on Tuesday marks a milestone not just for the MIT spinoff, but the global clean energy industry. The process — which combines two small atoms into one — can produce a large amount of energy, but without the radioactive byproduct that results from nuclear fission, where a large atom is split.
CFS is still working on a prototype, but its technology has drawn more than $2 billion in funding from the likes of Google, Bill Gates and a George Soros fund since the company was founded in 2018.
CFS is aiming to begin operating the plant in the early 2030s. It has a demonstration machine in Devens that is expected to start producing plasma in 2026.
“This is a historic moment. In the early 2030s, all eyes will be on the Richmond region and more specifically Chesterfield County, Virginia, as the birthplace of commercial fusion energy,” CFS CEO and co-founder Bob Mumgaard said in a statement.
The plant is anticipated to generate about 400 megawatts of electricity, enough to power the equivalent of 150,000 homes.
The commercial plant is to go up in an industrial park on land leased from the energy giant Dominion Energy (NYSE: D). CFS will finance, build, own and operate the fusion plant.
CFS scouted sites for its first commercial plant worldwide, it said. In his statement, Mumgaard pointed to Virginia’s willingness “to implement innovative solutions for both reliable electricity and clean forms of power.”