By Lucia Maffei
Fusion energy’s promise of clean, limitless energy is becoming even more critical in the era of AI, which requires massive computational power. Google and a Massachusetts-based company are working together to bring secure fusion power to market.
Devens-based Commonwealth Fusion Systems, or CFS, said Monday it deepened an ongoing relationship with AI giant Google, the prominent subsidiary of Mountain View, Calif.-based Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), which is set to buy 200 megawatts of clean fusion power from MIT spinoff CFS.
Google, which contributed to a Series B round in 2021 for CFS, is also increasing its stake in CFS by an undisclosed amount.
Rick Needham, CFS’s chief commercial officer, on Monday touted the deal as “the biggest commercial fusion deal in history.” Yet he also made it clear that a few things need to happen before Google can actually use the energy it is committing to buying now.
The planned timeline for CFS’s entry into the commercial market is in the early 2030s.
Last year, CFS said it is building what it bills as the world’s first fusion power plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia. The energy Google is buying will come out of that plant, called ARC, which is still in the development process.
“The timeline to design and build and deploy an ARC power plant is actually quite fast with respect to how energy system builds out its generation and connects it to the grid,” Needham said. “No one’s ever built a fusion power plant.”
Google didn’t say whether it plans to use CFS’ fusion energy for its AI products.
CFS’ fusion timeline
CFS has a few things on its agenda before entering the market.
First, it needs to show that its first fusion device can actually generate more energy than it consumes. That’s the the company’s SPARC device, located at CFS’ Massachusetts headquarters and built in collaboration with MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
Construction of SPARC is at about 60%, according to Needham. The system is expected to show net energy gain in 2027. “That’ll be the first time that it’s done in a commercially relevant architecture,” Needham said.
Meanwhile, the company is moving in parallel with the plans for its actual plant, for which CFS has started the process to secure licenses, approvals and permits. Construction in Virginia is expected to start in a couple to a few years, Needham said.
In CFS’ vision, customers of fusion energy will not be limited to the big AI companies. Industrial applications, the re-shoring of manufacturing and the electrification of many sectors, from transportation to heat, are all driving demand for clean energy.
ARC is designed to generate 400 megawatts of net electricity. One megawatt of capacity (one million watts) from a regular coal power plant is enough electricity to power 400 to 900 homes in a year, as estimated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Fusion vs. fission
CFS, which spun out of MIT in 2018, grew to more than 1,000 global employees and raised over $2 billion in total funding under the promise to deliver what many have considered the Holy Grail of clean energy: the commercialization of fusion energy.
“Fusion” would create energy by bringing together two atoms’ cores, or nuclei. Its twin and opposite process, nuclear fission, is the process of splitting nuclei apart.
For decades, scientists have been trying to replicate and commercialize fusion, the reaction that powers the sun and other stars. Contrary to wind or solar power, fusion can generate tremendous amounts of energy regardless of weather conditions, and without any carbon emissions as by-products.
Fusion enthusiasts say that fusion would also present distinct advantages over nuclear fission, which is the chain reaction nuclear power stations rely on nowadays: fusion would generate less radioactive waste than fission, and presents no risk of getting out of hand and cause meltdowns.
Fusion is also an incredibly expensive and challenging endeavor. A fusion power plant would need to be built using materials that can withstand the extreme conditions under which fusion can happen, such as heat and neutron damage. Such new materials are not ready to be used, and potential solutions aren’t easy to test.
Yet CFS says that its SPARC system in the Bay State will be the birthplace of fusion.
“We talk about how this might be the moment that many, many years from now, decades from now, people look back and say, ‘What was the birth of commercial fusion power?’ This might be that moment,'” Needham said.